时代背景是十九世纪末的土耳其，年轻的希腊男孩在康士坦丁堡为富商辛勤工作，但生活却充满了难堪与迫害。当他知道美国这块梦幻中的乐土之后，便千里迢迢移民美国追寻梦想。

菲利普（格利高里·派克 Gregory Peck 饰）是一名记者，带着儿子汤米（迪恩·斯托克维尔 Dean Stockwell 饰）和母亲（安妮·里维尔 Anne Revere 饰）来到大都市纽约，踌躇满志的他准备要在此干一番大事业。
上司交给了菲利普一个任务，撰写一系列关于美国存在的反犹主义的文章，为了能够更好地完成任务，菲利普决定假扮犹太人，切身体会一下身为一名犹太人的滋味与境遇。让菲利普没有想到的是，他的这一举动令他同女友凯西（多萝西·麦克吉尔 Dorothy McGuire 饰）之间的感情产生了裂缝，儿子亦因为父亲这一虚假的身份而遭到了同龄人的排挤与欺侮。在经历了种种挫折与困难之后，菲利普出色的完成了任务，然而，他的内心里却并不轻松。

Kazan adapted his own best-selling autobiographical first novel into this complex and turbulent portrait of a prosperous Los Angeles ad man turned suddenly and irretrievably sour to his luxurious life, beautiful wife and giddily successful career. Kirk Douglas' manic, high-keyed portrait of a man desperate to escape his gilded cage is matched by the nervous pacing and experimental flourishes of Kazan's most avant-garde feature. The Arrangement offers both a harrowing portrait of mid-life malaise and a sunblinded vision of L.A. as a cauldron of 20th century anxieties.