A dramatic British film of a family torn apart by their eldest son Ronnie being hanged for the murder of a young girl. George and Mary Rackham (André Morell and Flora Robson) try to erase the memory of Ronnie and the ghoulish attention of neighbors by moving away from their family home and changing the family name. Their children, however, Philip (Michael Dennison) and Frankie (Jane Hylton), struggle to adapt to normal family life without their executed brother. When Philip falls in love with the blonde temptress Doris (Mai Zetterling), he begins to imagine that his dead brother has returned and he fears for his own sanity. Rejected by his sister for falling in love with a girl who is identical to the cheap hussy who led Ronnie astray, Philip begins to fear the murderous instinct that possessed Ronnie is also within his veins.