Daisy Kenyon (Joan Crawford) is a commercial artist living in New York City and having a ‘back street’ affair with a married lawyer, Dan O’Mara (Dana Andrews), whom she hopes to marry as soon as he divorces his nagging wife Lucille (Ruth Warrick). Meanwhile, she meets a returning world-war-two veteran, Peter Lapham (Henry Fonda), a nice and decent man, whom she marries. Dan gets his divorce and then tries to persuade Daisy to leave her loving husband.