Ernie Mott Cary Grant is a restless, independent, wandering Cockney with perfect pitch. On Armistice Day, he visits the tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey, a solemn memorial to those who died in World War I and a personal reminder of the father he never knew in life, setting up a craving for a different kind of existence — one that is neither the hound nor the hare, neither a victim nor a thug. When he returns home, his mother Ma Mott Ethel Barrymore asks why he has come back after so long and issues an ultimatum: stay at home now, or leave forever. He chooses to stay briefly, then heads out for a drink, where he meets Aggie Hunter Jane Wyatt outside the bar and also catches the eye of Ada Brantline June Duprez, a fickle former wife of a gangster; but Ada’s resistance fades only when Ernie declares he plans to leave town the next day.
The next morning, Ma Mott Ethel Barrymore tells her pawnbroker friend Ike Weber Konstantin Shayne that she has cancer, and the family’s tensions flare as Ernie’s loyalty to his mother collides with his own restlessness. Ike steps in with a quiet sense of duty, urging Ernie to stay and help run the shop, and Ernie reluctantly reassesses his priorities. A month passes, and Ernie continues to pursue Ada, but Jim Mordinoy George Coulouris, the gangster, informs him that she is still his wife. When Ada insists she is free, Ernie doubts her and withdraws from her socially, a choice that deepens his awareness of the grinding poverty that surrounds him in London.
Driven by desperation and disillusionment, Ernie accepts Jim’s offer to join his more dangerous activities, even as Ada pleads with him to resist. He dives into car theft and becomes entangled in a police chase, ending in a fiery crash that nearly costs him his life. Ada begs him to run away with her, but he refuses, torn between love, a sense of justice, and the duty he now owes to his ailing mother. After a bail-out from Ike, Ernie learns that Ma’s arrest came after the police found Ma’s platinum cigarette case — a birthday gift from Ernie — stolen and used as a pretext to imprison her. Ma dies in prison hospital, begging forgiveness for shaming the family, a tragedy that hardens Ernie’s resolve to face a harsher world alone.
Returning home to a transformed, still-poor London, Ernie discovers a final sting: Ada has chosen to stay with Mordinoy to ease her life, confirming the gravity and shattering impact of the choices that led him down this path. Crushed, he walks the streets until he reaches Aggie’s door and steps inside, a quiet, morally complex ending that underscores how far a restless heart can stray when confronted with love, loyalty, and loss.
