John Kane's arrival in town coincides with rising unrest at a factory where workers push to unionize. Local authorities wrongly suspect him of being an outside organizer for the union cause. The suspicions of the local Sheriff and the District Attorney grow after they search his room and uncover a passport densely stamped with visas from countries around the world, including places few Americans are allowed to travel to, along with newspapers in a variety of languages. They speculate that he could be a journalist or a government agent, but one person sees a different truth: Doc Thomas, the Kane family’s longtime physician, understands that John is none of those things.
After the funeral of his sister, he confides to Louisa MacGill, a teacher at the local elementary school, that his "work" is finished and that he has only a few days to "do nothing" before he must leave. She responds with warmth, beginning a relationship in the hope that he will stay, which in turn stirs trouble with a local man who has had his eye on her since high school days.
In a conversation with Louisa, he says he won’t be returning to Hackley, and he reveals that one of his school friends, now a union organizer, will die soon. When that death happens, word of his prediction filters to the Sheriff, who uses it as an excuse to arrest John.
During questioning, John speaks of his travels but never discloses exactly what his "work" is. Doc Thomas visits him in jail, and they share a revealing, though still guarded, exchange that includes John recounting some of the horrors he has witnessed. John then walks out of jail and leaves town, while the Sheriff and his men remain preoccupied with the ongoing labor unrest.
Throughout the film, there are allusions to John's true nature in a tense confrontation with the Sheriff, his hesitant relationship with Louisa, his uncanny ability to travel widely, his facility with multiple languages, and his cool, aloof demeanor that hints at something beyond the ordinary.
Towards the end, a conversation with Doc Thomas seems to imply that the End of Days (as referenced in the Book of Revelation) may be near. This notion is reinforced when Doc asks whether it will come by fire, and it is underscored by the moment when John, seemingly more than human, opens a seemingly locked jail cell door without difficulty.
