After being a navy pilot in WWII, Alfred Eaton returns home to his wealthy but troubled family. Alfred's father has never gotten over his grief at the childhood death of Alfred's brother, resulting in emotional distance from Alfred and Alfred's mother. Alfred's love-starved mother "copes" by drinking and having affairs. Alfred's father expects him to go into the family steel mill business, but Alfred has plans to develop and sell airplanes with his old friend and war buddy, Lex porter. After an argument with his son, Alfred's father suffers a heart attack and dies shortly afterwards on Alfred's wedding day. Informed of his father's death, Alfred still goes through with his wedding to Mary St. John, a high society girl he's wooed away from Jim Roper, a doctor of psychiatry.
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With a pedigreed wife, Alfred's ambitions are to make it big on his own terms, but the already wealthy Lex and another partner seem more interested in refining plane designs than actually building them and selling them. When Alfred fortuitously saves the grandson of top Wall Street financier, James MacHardie, he's offered a job in the company and he accepts. Both shrewd and driven, Alfred becomes a star in the firm, but his workaholism costs him his relationship with Mary. Tired of being alone so much, Mary takes up again with Jim Roper and is indiscreet. Alfred wants to end the marriage, but can't because of MacHardie's strong personal feelings against divorce. Then Alfred meets Natalie Benziger on a business trip and they fall in love. Because of Natalie's principles, they take the high road and say goodbye, but later meet up again when she visits New York. They are photographed by men hired by Alfred's competitor in MacHardie's firm, Creighton Duffy. Duffy wants Alfred to convince MacHardie to back Lex's aircraft company, which has become a big name and has been touting a new aircraft for the military, but which Alfred has discovered to have major flaws. Alfred discusses the blackmail with Natalie, who bravely asks him to stand by the truth.
