Post-World War II, and Miss Sadie Thompson is heading to work in New Caledonia in the southwest Pacific Ocean. She is stranded on a rainy island, as a crew member on board the Orduna, the vessel she is travelling on, contracts typhus and the whole ship is put into quarantine. Sadie befriends a group of marines from an American outpost and is courted by Sergeant Phil O'Hara. He proposes that she move together with him to Sidney, Australia. However, the moralist and powerful Reverend Alfred Davidson recognizes her from the infamous Emerald Club in Honolulu, and forces her to return to San Francisco where she has a past that haunts her. Nevertheless no one can run away from themselves.