A sterling performance by Olivier is the centerpiece of this drama based on the novel of Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser.

When a farm girl follows her dreams to turn-of-the-century Chicago, she enters a bleak world of grueling, poorly-paid factory work. Determined to better her condition, she attaches herself to a salesman and then to a married restaurant manager who loses everything in order to keep her. As she ascends to success in the footlights, she leaves behind the man who rescued her.

When Carrie steps onto the train that will take her to Chicago, she regards the trip as a grand adventure. But her glorious dreams of the big city quickly die, for all that awaits Carrie there is a bleak life of grueling and poorly-paid factory work... until Drouet, a traveling salesman, comes her way. Breaking all the rules of morality at the time, Carrie moves in with Drouet without benefit of matrimony. At first she's content, but when Drouet introduces her to the elegant, wealthy and married Hurstwood, who manages a restaurant, Carrie instantly sizes up the difference between the two men - to Drouet's disadvantage. Hurstwood returns her affections, and one day, on impulse, he steals the money from his restaurant's safe. He and Carrie flee to New York to avoid arrest - but the consequences of that decision will alter both their lives in ways they cannot imagine...