The story concerns a young mentally disturbed man, Martin Lynn (Farley Granger), who goes on a rampage after his sick mother dies. One of the man's biggest beefs is with the Catholic Church who, in addition to slighting him when his mother needed a priest, once refused to bury his father years earlier because he committed suicide. The man, blaming the environment he lives in, goes on a rampage taking revenge on his cheap boss, a mortician and a priest, Father Kirkman (Harold Vermilyea), who refuses to give his poor mother a big funeral. He begins his rampage by killing the hard-line Priesthood (Catholic Church), who slighted him, by beating him with a heavy crucifix. Later, another young priest, Father Roth (Dana Andrews), suspects the young man, now arrested for another crime, for the killing.