Sandra Marshall (Errol Flynn) learns in the newspaper obituary column that her husband Jim Demarest (Richard Basehart) died. She mysteriously shows up on the isolated estate of research scientist Mark Caldwell (Errol Flynn) accompanied by Mark’s brother, Senator Charles Caldwell (Jerome Cowan). She informs a mourning and suspicious Mark that she met Jim while in college and they were secretly married for 5 months, without Jim informing the family. They had a deal arranged whereby Jim would advance her $2,000 and after 6 months they would dissolve the marriage (which, if you want my two cents, is pretty hard to believe that they would both enter into such a loveless marriage–all he had to do was lend her the money and keep doing whatever he was doing to her!). Mark is, of course, suspicious of the gold-digger, and has his lawyer check out her marriage certificate and the safety deposit where Jim kept his will–which left the deceased wealthy man’s entire estate to Sandra. Jim’s younger teenage sister Julie (Geraldine Brooks) is kept a virtual prisoner in the house, and is overjoyed with Sandra being a guest in the mansion. She informs Sandra that when her mother and father died, her mother drew up a trust fund making Uncle Mark in charge. The trust fund stipulated that the children couldn’t inherit their wealth until they were thirty. Mark has taken care of them ever since, but Julie complains that he’s using the money to support his lab (which is located in the back of the house and is always locked and off-limits). Julie suspects her overbearing uncle is after their inheritances and is keeping her brother alive as a prisoner on the vast estate grounds and that she’s also in danger, relating how some nights she hears Jim’s voice crying out for help. Sandra believes her when she also hears those screams, and is dissatisfied with Mark’s apparent lie that Julie is only having a nightmare. The servants all are loyal to Mark, and do whatever he tells them.