Three youths -- Martha, Walter and Sam -- are forever bound together by a terrible secret. Decades later, Martha (Stanwyck) and Walter (Douglas) are now married -- she's a wealthy, successful industrialist; he's a popular, ambitious District Attorney. But when Sam (Heflin) unexpectedly drifts back into town and into their lives, tensions rise. Is he simply back for a visit... or is he looking for a payoff to keep their awful secret buried?