Mary

Members of a theater troupe are integrated personally in many ways. Actress Mary Baring rents a room from fellow member, Mrs. Miller. Mary invites a number of troupe members over one evening, but by the end of the evening, the only attendee, Ellen Moore, one of the theater managers, is found dead in the apartment, Mary unaware of what happened. Mary is charged with murder as she was found standing over the dead body with the supposed murder weapon, a fireplace poker, Mary and Ellen were known not to like each other, they were heard arguing that night about an unnamed man who Mary refuses to identify, and besides Mrs. Miller, no one was known to have been in the apartment until the police arrived. At the trial, Mary is convicted and sentenced to death. However, one of the jurors, Sir John Menier, a fellow actor, he the head of another theater troupe and who was the last to relent to vote guilty, has second thoughts about succumbing to the pressure to vote the way he did, he truly believing Mary to be innocent. Part of his reasoning is that in being a fellow actor, he has a special insight into Mary's behavior. As such, he goes on a mission to prove her innocence by finding out who actually killed Ellen Moore.