Without lights and in a driving rain, a bus is lumbering along the muddy Assam Road en route from Chungking to the Indian border. Passengers include Albert Pasavy (
Otto Kruger), a European of unknown nationality; a missionary, the Rev. Dr. Van Der Linden (
Steven Geray); a French officer Major Raoul Brissac (
Ernst Deutsch as Ernest Dorian) and Countess Olga Karagin (
Tamara Geva), a White Russian. There are also Madame Wu (
Soo Yong), an ancient Chinese lady on an important diplomatic mission to India, and her traveling companion, Ann Richards (
Ellen Drew), an American Red Cross nurse. The trip is halted after Japanese planes bomb the road and hit a munitions truck and kill many Chinese soldiers. The Chinese commander puts the wounded soldiers on the bus and directs it to a nearby secret airport where the officer in charge is Captain Nick Stanton (
Robert Preston), an American attached to the Chinese Air Force. Stanton is ordered to fly the bus passengers to India and, before the take-off, he discovers that the Countess is a spy and he has her sent back to Chungking. Flying high over the mountainous Japanese-infested country, the plane is attacked by Zero fighter planes and makes a crash landing in the jungle. Just before the radio goes dead, Stanton is informed by Chungking of Olga's suicide after confessing that her superior is aboard the India-bound plane. Stanton still has to get Madame Wu to India and Van Der Linden suggests that the Buddhist monks in a near-by monastery will be happy to help. Or, perhaps, maybe they won't.
—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>