Based on Pearl S. Buck's gripping novel, this film follows the story of a Catholic priest in China during the Communist Revolution. Father O'Banion (William Holden), a young Catholic priest assigned to a remote mission in China, meets a beautiful girl, Siu Lan (France Nuyen), whose affections he must deny in order to serve the church. And when the Red Army seizes the mission and inflicts a sinister hold over Lan and everyone else at the mission, the strength of O'Banion's faith and forgiveness are put to the ultimate test.