Screen version of the musical Carmen Jones, which adapted Bizet’s opera Carmen for an African-American cast. Army soldier Joe falls in love with Carmen, a beautiful and seductive factory worker. When he kills his sergeant during a fight, the ill-fated lovers flee to escape the police. But Carmen's faithlessness and selfishness eventually surface, and she rejects Joe for another man. But he can't let her go, and his obsessive love ultimately leads to tragedy.