Richard (Dick) Gordon is called home from his Catholic boys' school to attend the wedding of his father and stepmother and meet his new stepsister Patricia. After the wedding he wants to return to the school, but instead he goes to college. Also a skilled seaman and pilot, he becomes much more "wordly" while at college. When he learns that he will never have the love of the woman he has fallen for, he runs away and joins the Air Force. While recovering after he gets shot down, he returns to his school to visit Father O'Malley, whom he has always looked up to and admired.
—Joseph