A plane flying over the Swiss Alps develops engine trouble and is forced to crash-land on a glacier. Unable to radio for help because of damaged batteries and with limited food supplies, the survivors must come to a decision -- whether to stay and wait for help they believe is coming or to leave the shelter of the wrecked plane and set out in bad weather to try to reach civilization.

The French owner of an antique shop, Desius Heiss, (Oskar Homolka) has become disillusioned with society since his torture as a prisoner on Devil's Island, since when he has allowed his shop to become a front for criminal activity, and he himself is a receiver of stolen goods.

Vivian Kenway, a young Englishman from an aristocratic background, flunks out of Oxford, and decides to use his considerable charm to achieve his goal of, apparently, making dissipation his career. His derelictions include seduction, betrayals of sweethearts, family and friends, and Marriage for money. All this with no signs of remorse or redemption, since his life as a completely unprincipled rake is quite enjoyable...for him, at least. Then, World War II breaks out and he is given a chance to die a heroic death for flag and country. Maybe.

With the ending of the Spanish Civil War, a dispirited band of volunteers from the International Brigades seeks refuge in France. But on reaching the frontier, the band is disarmed, and all are detained as political prisoners. Then come instructions from Vichy that all fit prisoners are to be sent to Morocco to work on the Sahara railway for the Germans. However, one man manages to escape to London with vital information for the Allies.

General Candy, who's overseeing an English squad in 1943, is a veteran leader who doesn't have the respect of the men he's training and is considered out-of-touch with what's needed to win the war. But it wasn't always this way. Flashing back to his early career in the Boer War and World War I, we see a dashing young officer whose life has been shaped by three different women, and by a lasting friendship with a German soldier.