John Trimble has embezzled and obtains another identity by having a mutilated body buried in his place. He is later arrested for murdering himself. During the trial his mother asks him to keep his identity secret since his wife is now married to the Governor and expecting a child.

Considered one of the earliest cinematic examples of the psychological drama, Cecil B. DeMille’s crime-and-punishment parable is a visionary masterwork. Employing then-nascent techniques of superimposition and parallel editing, The Whispering Chorus scales the weight of a guilty conscience.