Driving past a small town in Dorsetshire, former soldier Bert Mowbray saw his wife and children on the platform, killed during a bombing. Deciding that they are alive and his wife deceived him, the soldier searches for them, threatening to kill them. A few days later, the corpse of a woman with a disfigured face is found in the surrounding area. All evidence points to a soldier gone mad with grief. Local police inspector Hildebrand is convinced that the victim is Mowbray's wife. Only Scotland Yard inspector Ian Rutledge does not believe in his guilt. Overcoming Hildebrand's resistance and hostility, Rutledge persistently searches for the real culprit of the crime...