Carla Alten is determined to conquer the White Tower, a difficult, unconquered peak in the
Swiss Alps that had claimed her mountaineer father's life. Her climbing party consists of the wise veteran guide Andreas and four other men. Englishman Nicholas Radcliffe is concerned that he is too old to manage the climb. Alcoholic French writer Paul Delambre claims that he is just finishing a book about the mountain, but his wife treats Delambre and his idea with utter contempt. American Martin Ordway, an easygoing former pilot whose plane was downed in the region during
World War II, is attracted to Carla. Against her best judgment, Carla is persuaded to enlist an expert German climber named Hein, whose wool cap bears a faded
Luftwaffe insignia. During the climb, the team members' strengths and weaknesses are revealed. Ordway and Carla are falling in love. Radcliffe acknowledges that he has reached his limit and returns to the base camp rather than endangering the others. At the next stage, morning finds Delambre too drunk to continue. The rest of the team leaves him in a tent with a safe fire. That night, during a blizzard, he unearths a bottle that he had hidden, finishes his book and accidentally sets the tent on fire, sending the pages flying into the storm. He staggers drunkenly into the darkness and dies. It becomes clear that Hein wants to prove Aryan superiority by becoming the first to climb the mountain, and Ordway follows his tracks. Stuck on a
snow bridge, Hein refuses to take Ordway's outstretched hand and plummets to his death. Suffering from
snow blindness, Ordway collapses within sight of the peak. When Carla and Andreas find him, Andreas mentions that Carla could easily reach the top, but she insists that it is more important to help Ordway safely descend the mountain. There is no permanent damage to Ordway's eyes, and he and Carla decide to marry. ==Cast==