An overlong, self-important yet compelling melodrama, with Gregory Peck as the appealingly flawed hero faced with choosing between his family and a high-powered but time-consuming job. To add to his woes, his marriage to Jennifer Jones is undermined by the revelation that he fathered a child in Italy during the war. The excellent Peck and Jones - reunited after Duel in the Sun - are joined by the ever-reliable Fredric March and Lee J Cobb, as well as Marisa Pavan, twin sister of Pier Angeli and an Oscar-nominee for The Rose Tattoo as Peck's Italian mistress.

Tom Rath is a suburban father and husband haunted by his memories of World War II, including a wartime romance with Italian village girl Maria, which resulted in an illegitimate son he's never seen. Pressed by his unhappy wife to get a higher-paying job, Rath goes to work as a public relations man for television network president Ralph Hopkins. Drawn into poisonous office politics, Tom finds he must choose his career or his family.