The film depicts a successful economics professor, Dr. Andrew Patterson, who discovers that an elite fraternity he joined as an undergraduate is really a callous banking and business cabal that obtains wealth and power for its members through nefarious practices.

Professor Andrew Patterson (Glenn Ford) returns to his alma mater, the College of St. George in San Francisco.

The man who initiated Patterson 22 years earlier, financier Chad Harmon (Dean Jagger), is presiding at the ceremony.

Remorse causes Patterson to confide in his wife, Vivian (Rosemary Forsyth), and his father-in-law Harry Masters (Maurice Evans), and he announces a desire to reveal the Brotherhood's actions to the public.

After Patterson goes public with his exposé, his father (Will Geer), the CEO of a multi-million dollar company, is singled out by the IRS for fraud.

Patterson finds himself increasingly isolated, and reaches rock bottom when he appears on a local television talk show.