At Christmas, three prisoners, Joseph (Humphrey Bogart), Albert (Aldo Ray), and Jules (Sir Peter Ustinov) escape from Devil Island to a French small coastal town. They decide to rob a store, to get some money and clothes and travel by ship to another place. They pretend to be there to fix the roof, but pretty soon they realize that the financial condition of the family Ducotel is not good. André Trochard (Basil Rathbone), the selfish and mean owner of the establishment, exploits the Ducotel...

Harry Morgan and his alcoholic sidekick, Eddie, are based on the island of Martinique and crew a boat available for hire. However, since the second world war is happening around them business is not what it could be. After a customer who owes them a large sum fails to pay, they are forced against their better judgment to violate their preferred neutrality and to take a job for the resistance transporting a fugitive on the run from the Nazis to Martinique. Through all this runs the stormy...