A woman tries to free herself from her husband by helping him fake his own death.

The marriage of Italian-born Lisa Macklin and her American husband, Robert, has reached an impasse because of Robert's immaturity and emotional instability. Consequently, on the day of Robert's departure from their home in Paris for Casablanca on business, Lisa tells him that she will not see him again. That night she learns that her husband's plane has crashed and all aboard are presumed dead. The following morning Robert, ragged and injured, reappears and explains that he was blown through the escape hatch just before the crash. Since no one knows he is alive, he suggests that Lisa collect the $120,000 in insurance he took out at the airport. She reluctantly agrees only when Robert intimates that he will disappear from her life once he has the money. Robert stays hidden in their apartment, while a distraught Lisa signs the necessary legal documents and, at the same time, becomes involved with David Barnes, an American newspaperman. Once she has the money, Lisa drives Robert to the Belgian border. En route, he tells her that she must stay with him always or he will turn her over to the police for insurance fraud. Desperate, she tricks him into getting out of the car and then runs him down. Shattered and driven out of her mind by the experience, she returns to the waiting David, who telephones the authorities.