The wife of a member of the French Academy is charged with the murder of a gossip columnist. She testifies that she had to kill him to save her husband from being blackmailed.
Henty, a disillusioned businessman, joins an Amazon expedition and gets lost in the jungle. There he meets McMaster, the sinister half-caste whose greatest joy is having the works of Charles Dickens read to him.
Returning home from work early one evening, a husband finds his wife with another man. The two men fight and during the struggle the husband is killed. The wife and her friend try to establish an alibi.