During the dark days of World War II, young Mary Tillet is bombed out of her home and forced to seek lodgings upstairs from a tobacconist. Her kindly but mysterious landlord, Jack Rawlings, attempts to transform the empty, web-strewn apartment into a home. After reading newspaper accounts of the "London Blackout Murders," Mary is plagued by dread. Is her landlord a hero, or a sinister assassin? Taken as a period piece, the movie is a gem that briskly portrays the effects of wartime shortages, women in the workplace, and the moral ambiguity inherent in life-or-death situations.