| Director | George Cukor |
|---|---|
| Budget | $3.6 million |
| Box office | $4.9 million |
India, 1947: In the final days of British rule, Victoria Jones, the beautiful daughter of an Indian mother and an English train engineer, is serving in the British Army. She returns on leave after four years to her childhood home in the fictional town of Bhowani, north-western India, where supporters of Mahatma Gandhi are campaigning for Indian independence while communists, led by a revolutionary known as Davay, foment riot and sabotage.
She becomes reacquainted with a childhood sweetheart also of Anglo-Indian heritage, rail traffic superintendent Patrick Taylor, and also with Colonel Rodney Savage, a British army officer whose Indian battalion has been posted to Bhowani to maintain law and order as British rule ends. The protesters disrupt the rail service and Savage places Victoria on duty during the crisis. He disperses the protesters violently and Victoria does not approve of his methods. She begins seriously contemplating her identity and speculates that she should marry a man from India, although clearly Taylor is still in love with her and Savage has become infatuated with her.
Walking home alone one night, Victoria is attacked and nearly raped by Captain McDaniel, one of Savage's men, but in self-defence she strikes him on the head with a steel bar and kills him. Finding her, a Sikh co-worker of Taylor's, Ranjit Kasel, takes her to his home and offers her sanctuary, introducing her to his mother, the Sadani, and to a guest in their home, Ghanshyam, who offers to hide McDaniel's body after the Sadani worries that her son Ranjit will be accused of murdering the officer.
Davay's raids on the military infrastructure continue. He blows up a train, causing numerous deaths and injuries. When an army sentry is found murdered because he saw McDaniel and Victoria together just before she killed the officer, Victoria realizes that the man in Ranjit's home, Ghanshyam, is actually Davay and that the Sadani, once a notorious Indian resistance leader, has been harboring him. Victoria, influenced by her love of India, decides to become a Sikh alongside Ranjit when he recommits himself to the faith. However, during the ceremony, she is overwhelmed by guilt and begins replaying the comments of differing British and Indian voices in her head until it is too much for her and she suddenly flees.
Desperate, Victoria runs to her father and embraces him, telling him she has not become a Sikh. She begs to join him in the cab of his train as he travels to Gondwana, but he says he will be fired for breaking regulations. Just then, Savage appears saying he is also taking the train to negotiate another rifle company. Victoria's father presents a solution: if Savage orders Victoria to go, her father will have to submit. She travels in the cab but finds little relief as the heat overwhelms her. When they arrive, she separates from her father who has a further connection and looks for a seat to go back, before she stumbles on Savage. Savage sees her deteriorated state and asks her into his carriage where she showers and has drinks with him before confessing. In the morning, she realises what she has done, and expects Savage to think her guilty of murder. Instead, he promises to stand by her as long as she tells the truth. There is an inquest and Sadani is arrested. Victoria's case is determined self defence, and a ring is put around the city to try to find Davay before he flees. Victoria starts a relationship with Savage, wherein they visit an Indian restaurant together wearing Western clothing, and join in traditional Indian dances.
One night, Davay kidnaps Victoria, forcing her to exploit her connections as a train driver's daughter to force a train to stop long enough for Davay to climb aboard and drag Victoria with him. At a certain point in the journey, Davay leaves Victoria bound and gagged and jumps off with sticks of dynamite. Taylor hears from his staff that one of the trains stopped unexpectedly earlier that night and that a woman in a red dress and a man boarded. Fearing that Victoria has run away, Taylor goes first to her home only to find her missing, and then to Savage's. When the rivals realise she has been kidnapped, they race to stop the train they believe she is on. Savage and Taylor intercept the train after it goes through a tunnel, rescuing Victoria but finding Davay has gone into the tunnel with dynamite. Taylor recklessly advances into the tunnel to defuse the dynamite but is shot by Davay, who in turn is immediately shot and killed by Savage. Savage, cradling Taylor as he dies, watches the safe passage of the train. On board is Gandhi, whom Davay intended to assassinate, thereby inciting further hostilities and riots.
Savage's duty in India ends and he is summoned back to England, but his love for Victoria has become overwhelming. When she refuses to marry him and live in England, he proposes to marry but remain in India, and she accepts. Savage's superior offers to expedite his early release from military service in acknowledgement for his accomplishments.