Lord Albert Esketh and his American wife Edwina are travelling through India in the humid days before the monsoon. Polite to each other in public, they are bitter in private. She taunts him with having married him for his title, while he married her for her money. She selfishly keeps him on a tight rein, forcing him to travel with her while she is flagrantly unfaithful. Her adulterous affairs have been commented on in the newspapers.
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They visit the aristocratic Maharani of Ranchipur, who is graciously welcoming, inviting a number of locals to meet them. One is the Maharani's protégé, Dr Major Rama Safti, a dedicated doctor and a man of profound integrity. Edwina tries to seduce him, prompting her disgusted husband to threaten divorce. Safti resists her at first, but after he protects her from a cobra they draw closer together. On a hunting expedition, he also saves her husband from being killed by a man-eating tiger.
The monsoon arrives, but passions do not cool. When Lord Albert tries to warn Safti of Edwina's tendency to tire of her conquests, he will not listen, having fallen deeply in love with her. The Maharani plans to order her out of Ranchipur, but Safti says he will go with her, must go with her, despite his commitment to the poor people of the region. At a formal reception, Tom Ransome, a drunken engineer who knows Edwina and admires Safti, tries to talk him out of it. They almost fight, but are interrupted by an earthquake.
The review of this Movie prepared by Maureen Evans
