It was adapted from John P. Marquand's 1946 novel of the same name, about a prominent couple whose marital tensions come to a boiling point during World War II.

The book was controversial for its treatment of social conflicts and adultery, but the film is a sanitized and fairly conventional love story.

She is involved in a long engagement to family friend Bob Tasmin, an affable, scrupulously honest lawyer who is such a steady guy that he sometimes seems boring.

Polly is painfully torn between her strong-willed husband and her devoted father, whom everyone calls "B.F." When World War II arrives, Tom takes a high-level civilian position in Washington, doing work that he cannot discuss.

Then she is stunned by a news report that Bob Tasmin, now a dashing military officer happily married to Polly's best friend, has apparently been killed on a mission behind enemy lines.