A group of Anglican nuns, led by Sister Clodagh, are sent to a mountain in the Himalayas. They try to establish a school and hospital in the old palace of an Indian Raja at the top of an isolated mountain. But extreme weather, altitude, and culture clashes let tensions grow.

Powell & Pressburger’s opulent jewel box of colors, sets and costumes is also a hotbed of sexual and racial tensions. Part prestige production, part sordid dramatic pressure cooker, the good and the tawdry live side by side in the studio-bound exoticism whose cinematic beauty has never been matched.