James Prothero, forty-three years old and up to his ears in alcohol, is the skipper of a tramp ship due to leave South America for Britain – and he’s sick to death of carting goods back and forth across the world. Then he meets Manuela, a beautiful native girl smuggled on board by one of his crew, and comes to realise that she, too, is a lost soul. Gradually a love affair develops between them, and Prothero becomes dangerously blind to the responsibilities of his position.
James Prothero, forty-three years old and up to his ears in alcohol, is the skipper of a tramp ship due to leave South America for Britain – and he’s sick to death of carting goods back and forth across the world. Then he meets Manuela, a beautiful native girl smuggled on board by one of his crew, and comes to realise that she, too, is a lost soul. Gradually a love affair develops between them, and Prothero becomes dangerously blind to the responsibilities of his position.
The film pivots around the local Norwegian doctor and his family. The doctor's wife (Ruth Gordon) wants to hold on to the pretence of gracious living and ignore their German occupiers. The doctor, Martin Stensgard (Walter Huston), would also prefer to stay neutral, but is torn. His brother-in-law, the wealthy owner of the local fish cannery, collaborates with the Nazis. The doctor's daughter, Karen (Ann Sheridan), is involved with the resistance and with its leader Gunnar Brogge (Errol Flynn). The doctor's son has just returned to town, having been sent down from the university, and is soon influenced by his Nazi-sympathizer uncle. Captain Koenig (Helmut Dantine), the young German commandant of the occupying garrison, whose fanatic determination to do everything by the book and spoutings about the invincibility of the Reich hides a growing fear of a local uprising.
