Talk about biting the hand that would feed you! Two petty thieves end up in hospital after a robbery went wrong. “Ray” (Richard Widmark) is an angry and odious character who refuses to let the duty doctor “Brooks” (Sydney Poitier) anywhere near his injured brother. His protestations are ignored, but when the patient dies his brother begins to make all sorts of vile racist assertions against the doctor. These noises are soon being heard on the streets, and with racial tensions already running high the situation becomes dangerous for the doctor, his family, his hospital and amidst a community…