While stationed in India during the Crimean War, Major Geoffrey Vickers (Errol Flynn) is twice betrayed. His brother, Captain Perry Vickers (Patric Knowles), has swept his fiancée, Elsa (Olivia De Havilland), off her feet. Meanwhile, after Vickers saves the life of Surat Khan (C. Henry Gordon), the rajah launches a massacre in a nearby city and allies himself with the British troops' Russian enemies. Vickers and his Light Brigade respond to this provocation at the historical Battle of Balaklava.