Doctor Pearson (Michael Rennie), who works at a hospital in Quebec, Canada, receives a series of poison pen letters.

More letters, all signed with the mysterious picture of a feather, are delivered to others in the small Canadian town.

Another letter informs a shell-shocked veteran Mr. Gauthier that he is dying of cancer, causing the distraught man to commit suicide.

Channel 4's review of the film praised the cinematography and music score: "The movie is redolent with atmosphere: Joseph LaShelle's photography accentuates the black and shadows, and there's dark shading too in Alex North's music.

The film is dominated by death and melancholy, and by Françoise Rosay as the matriarch responsible for the trouble.