The story was inspired by the real-life Ethel Proudlock case which involved the wife of the headmaster of Victoria Institution in Kuala Lumpur who was convicted in a murder trial after shooting dead a male friend in April 1911.

In the play, the action takes place in the house of a plantation owner, Robert Crosbie, and his wife Leslie in the then-British colony of Malaya, and later in the Chinese quarter of Singapore.

The play focuses on the steps taken by the wife's lawyer to convince the court of her innocence, following the discovery of an incriminating letter, which he bribes the native woman to return.

[2] Gladys Cooper both produced and starred in the London premiere of the play in 1927 at the Playhouse Theatre where it ran for 60 weeks, including a tour of the provinces.

[3] The Broadway version did not include a scene that had been inserted into the final act in London, a flashback that related what had occurred immediately before the shooting that begins the play.