Flora 'Sissy' Goforth (Taylor, in a part written for an older woman) is a terminally ill woman living with a coterie of servants in a large mansion on a secluded island. Into her life comes a mysterious man, Christopher Flanders, nicknamed "Angelo Del Morte" (played by then-husband Burton, in a part intended for a very young man). The mysterious man may or may not be "Destroying angel (Bible)".