The film begins in the spring of 1947 on the south coast of France on the French Riviera. English lawyer Giles Gordon, has been partially blinded during service in World War II, and fears his eyesight is worsening. After stumbling in a shoe shop, the shop girl Alix Delaisse, recognises him later in the day and joins him at a cafe. She explains she is the widow of a French Resistance fighter hung in Nice. Restaurateur Pierre Chava approaches Giles and warns him off with the claim that Alix is already promised to him. He tells Giles that Alix is involved with black marketers, blackmailers and murderers from the war years and demands that Giles forget her and return to England. Giles and Alix spend more and more time together. After a day of water sports in Monaco he stumbles into a room of Alix's black market contacts. She tells him to go home to England. Pierre also pressures him to leave. He goes to Pierre's flat and finds a dead body which, due to his poor eyesight he presumes to be Pierre, but he is persuaded by a marketeer that it was not Pierre. Giles goes back to England and goes to his doctor who says he can restore his sight. He has this operation and is shown a press cutting saying that Pierre has been killed in a car crash, but with his body unrecognisable. Giles returns to France and wears dark glasses to disguise his restored sight. He tracks down Alix and reveals that he can now see. Armand invites him to dinner with Alix and explains the whole situation: Pierre had betrayed the Resistance group to the Nazis, bringing the death of Alix's husband, and they had sought revenge. Malinay had killed Pierre in his flat. He later returned to collect the body and stage an alternate death. The marketeers decide Giles knows too much and try to stage another death: pushing him over a cliff in a car. However they fail to see him fall out and presume he is killed when the car explodes at the bottom. Giles struggles to ascend the steep cliff back to the road. He returns to confront Malinay and declare is ongoing love for Alix.
The film's original theatrical releases included its premiere in the United Kingdom on 4 April, in Finland on 19 October 1951, in Sweden on 3 December 1951, in Portugal on 1 June 1952, in the United States on 5 July 1953 and in Denmark on 16 November 1953. International release titles include in Austria as Nacht ohne Sterne, in Denmark as Natten uden stjerner, in Finland as Tähdetön yö, in Greece as Nyhta horis asteria, in Italy as Notte senza stelle, in Portugal as Quando a Luz Voltou, in Sweden as Natt utan stjärnor, and in West Germany as Nacht ohne Sterne
