When Southern belle Susanna Drake (Elizabeth Taylor) visits Indiana, she falls for John Wickliff Shawnessy (Montgomery Clift), an abolitionist with strong ideals. However, John falters while he lets Drake tempt him away from his true love, Nell Gaither (Eva Marie Saint). After Drake deceives John into marriage, the two move to her New Orleans household, where he discovers that mental illness runs in her family. When the Civil War begins, John uses it to escape from the unhappy marriage.