After the end of World War II, Peter Kuban (Vittorio Gassman), a Hungarian displaced person and survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, stows away in Trieste (at the time of the film's release a city divided between Italy and Yugoslavia) on a ship bound for New York City. However, he is spotted by ship officials and held for the authorities. When the ship arrives in New York City, he claims that he qualifies for entry under an exception for those who helped Allied soldiers during the war, but all he knows about the paratrooper he hid from the enemy is that his name is Tom and he plays clarinet in a jazz band in New York City's Times Square. The immigration authorities, led by Inspector Bailey, say that without better documentation he must be sent back to communist Hungary on the ship, which departs the next morning.