An American heiress with an incurable disease falls in love with her surgeon.

Wealthy, twice-divorced playgirl Laura Pember, while driving to the London airport to meet her younger sister Ellen, has a sudden attack of vertigo. Recovering and going on to meet Ellen, she brings her sister home to find a lavish party in progress. In the course of the evening, Laura's current lover, race car driver Mike Bannerman, arranges for his friend John Carmody, a physician, to see Laura about her headaches, dizziness, and periodic loss of vision. John, in turn, persuades her to consult a brain specialist, Eric McKenzie; and Laura undergoes an apparently successful operation. By this time Laura and John have fallen deeply in love; but confused and bitter upon learning that she has less than a year to live, Laura runs away to Italy to be with Bannerman when he competes in the Grand Prix. John finds her, however; and they marry and settle down in a Cornish village where Laura discovers the rewards of simple living and for the first time is able to give and receive love. No longer afraid, she lies down alone to die while John is visiting one of his patients.