Teenager Barbara Vining (Glynis Johns) has an unrequitedcrush on her Latin-language teacher, Stephen Barlow (Leo Genn) and goes to his house for private tutoring. Barlow's wife Kay (Gene Tierney) notices Barbara's infatuation and cruelly confronts her. Barbara, who is humiliated, runs out of their house. Stephen phones Barbara at her home and asks her to meet him at the village weir, late at night, which she does.
Barbara does not return home to her parents Henry (Walter Fitzgerald) and Vi (Megs Jenkins). By the next day Vi becomes distraught and is heavily sedated, while Henry angrily confronts Stephen. The police are brought in and Stephen lies to them about meeting Barbara at the weir. By the second day, Stephen is accused by the community, without any evidence, of having had an affair with Barbara or even of causing her death by murder or suicide.
Barbara's gossipyspinster Aunt Evelyn (Pamela Brown), who lives with the family, makes the situation considerably worse with her innuendo, by projecting her own, much earlier unrequited love experience onto her niece. As the police drag the river to find Barbara's body, an irate group of concerned mothers meet with the school's headmaster, causing Stephen to lose his job. He confesses his original lie to Kay, but Aunt Evelyn tells Kay that Stephen was having an affair with Barbara. Kay flees her home, much as she had earlier caused Barbara to do. After three days, Barbara returns, alive, but questions remain.
The film was reviewed by Bosley Crowther of The New York Times in the 23 October 1954 edition. Crowther called the film "a decent, eventually tedious film".[4]
