Naive American engineer Howard Graham (Joseph Cotton) is taken by a fellow employee to an Istanbul nightclub, where he becomes attracted to dancer Josette Martel (Dolores del Rio). An attempt to murder him results in the death of an unfortunate magician instead.

Embers and Dust focuses on the perspective of a young farm boy and his family, and how the night of Orson Welles' dramatic broadcast of War of The Worlds unfolded for them.