Acclaimed director Fritz Lang (Metropolis) weaves a twisting film noir of an overly zealous district attorney, a crusading newspaper editor opposed to capital punishment and a novelist looking for a good story who agrees to allow himself to be found guilty of murder Beyond a Reasonable Doubt. To dramatize an argument between newspaper editor Austin Spencer (Sidney Blackmer) and district attorney Roy Thompson (Philip Bourneuf), former reporter Tom Garrett (Dana Andrews) agrees to plant evidence implicating him for the brutal murder of a nightclub singer. Garrett and Spencer plan to allow a jury to convict Garrett and sentence him to death, then reveal irrefutable evidence of Garrett's innocence. The two men keep the scheme a secret--even from Garrett's fiancé, Spencer's daughter Susan (Academy Award winner Joan Fontaine).