In a Texas oil town, wealthy but troubled Kyle Hadley brings home his new wife, Lucy, stirring tensions with his loyal friend Mitch and his volatile sister Marylee. As jealousy and desire escalate, the Hadley family faces a collapse fueled by rivalry and self-destruction.

Lust and impotence, booze, oil money and family scions—and above all, desire for approval, for love. Douglas Sirk’s resplendent melodrama, too often taken as camp, is as serious as cinema gets. Only, Sirk heightens it all: colors bursting, neuroses tormenting, libidos raging—excess barely contained.