A soldier falls for the woman who may have killed his best friend.

During World War II, while on the Allied front in Italy, Alan Quinton writes love letters to Victoria Remington for fellow British officer Roger Morland, who met her briefly at a ball. Victoria falls in love with the poetic spirit behind the letters, and although Alan is engaged to Helen Wentworth, he too falls in love with Victoria through her letters. Roger and Victoria marry, and when Alan is wounded, Roger visits his parents in England while on his honeymoon. Alan finally returns home and stays in a sanitorium while he recuperates, and soon learns that Roger has died in an accident. At the end of the war, Alan has difficulty returning to civilian life, and is eager to move to Beltmarsh to a country house he has inherited from an aunt. Before leaving London, Alan's brother takes him to a party where he meets Dilly Carson and a woman named Singleton. While drunk, Alan tells the story of how he lost his heart to a woman he never met, but to whom he wrote for another man. Dilly realizes that Alan is speaking of Victoria and Roger, and tells him that an "old murder" was committed at Beltmarsh, and that he should think about the letters while he is there. Shortly after moving to Beltmarsh, which is still looked after by his aunt's caretaker, Mack, Alan breaks his engagement to Helen. One day, Alan goes to Meadow Farm, Victoria's former home, but is told that Victoria died over a year earlier. Recalling Dilly's words, he researches newspaper articles at the library and learns that Roger was murdered by his wife. Alan feels somehow responsible for Roger's death, and goes to see Dilly in London. There he encounters the amnesiac Victoria, who now goes by the name of Singleton, the name given to her as a child at an orphanage. Dilly warns Alan not to tell Victoria the truth of who he is, and explains that she was a Canadian orphan adopted by Beatrice Remington. Although she only met Roger briefly, Victoria fell in love with him through the letters, and married him, despite Beatrice's protests, only three days after he returned from the front. Dilly then recalls the past: Victoria grows sullen after marrying, and one day, Dilly is called to Meadow Farm, where she finds Roger stabbed to death, Victoria completely dazed, and Beatrice suffering from a paralytic stroke. Because Beatrice cannot testify at the murder trial, Victoria confesses her guilt, but admits she cannot remember anything about her past. After spending one year in a prison psychiatric ward, Victoria is released into the care of her old friend Dilly. Dilly now tells Alan that Beatrice has recovered and is living in a nursing home, but that Victoria has never recovered her memory, and does not even know her real name, believing that she is "Singleton." One day, Victoria unexpectedly appears at Beltmarsh, and she and Alan fall in love. Because Victoria is unaware of her own identity, she still believes that he is in love with another woman named Victoria Morland. Alan and Victoria marry, but she is plagued by her own erratic recollections and Alan's love of the "other woman." One day, while Alan is away, Victoria intercepts a letter from Beatrice telling Alan that she has moved back to Meadow Farm. Victoria goes back to her old house, where the murder took place, and Beatrice recounts the story of Victoria's marriage: Victoria becomes depressed because Roger does not share her sentimental nature. Realizing Victoria is in love with the writer of the letters rather than him, the callous Roger soon becomes abusive. One day, while drunk, he tells Victoria that he did not write the letters and burns them, then beats Victoria as she tries to pull them from the fire. Beatrice, who has an obsessive need to protect Victoria, stabs Roger to death, then has a paralytic stroke. When Victoria, who crouches by the fireplace grieving over the loss of her letters, suddenly realizes that Roger is dead, she picks up the knife, incriminating herself, then lapses into amnesia. When Alan arrives at the house, Victoria recalls her true identity. Although Beatrice tries to persuade Victoria that they should hate the man who wrote the letters, Victoria runs to Alan, who confesses that it was he. Finally, they embrace.