A district attorney is determined to convict a vagrant of killing a prominent clergyman. However, as the lawyer delves deeper into the case, he begins to suspect the defendant may in fact be innocent. Crime drama based on a real-life murder case of the 1920s, starring Dana Andrews, Lee J Cobb, Arthur Kennedy, Jane Wyatt, Ed Begley and Karl Malden.

When a kindly priest is murdered while waiting at a street corner in a quiet Connecticut town, the citizens are horrified and demand action from the police. All of the witnesses identify John Waldron, a nervous out-of-towner, as the killer. District Attorney Henry Harvey is then put on the case and faces political opposition in his attempt to prove Waldron's innocence.