Ich beichte

A murder occurs. A man with a priest's cassock hurries through the streets at night. His goal is the church. The murderer confesses the crime to the real priest Michael William Logan (Montgomery Clift). He makes the perpetrator promise to turn himself in to the police. A promise that will never be kept. Suddenly he himself comes under suspicion. His long-forgotten past makes Father Logan a defendant. Is he perhaps not entirely innocent after all? But he is not allowed to exonerate himself, not in front of Ruth Grandfort (Anne Baxter) and not in front of Inspector Larrue (Karl Malden), even though he knows the murderer. He has sworn to keep the secrecy of confession. Although the father is threatened with the electric chair, his conscience is stronger.