George Wilson (Van Heflin ) is a recently suspended American aviator (crashed a plane while drunk in New Haven and killed a man) who out of desperation signs a one-year contract with Ellis (Onslow Stevens), the greedy and exploitative owner of the Trans-Andean Air Service of Delgado, Argentina, filling the position of one of the former pilots killed in flight. The new pilot arrives with his bride Lee (Whitney Bourne) of three months and is dismayed to find a fleet of inferior and outdated planes and a bunch of cynical, has-been pilots as his co-workers. But he stays because he needs the job and doesn’t have the money to pay Ellis back for the expenses received. The heavy drinker George gets the easier coast route, but soon is forced to fly the treacherous mountain delivery route over secluded mines with another plane piloted by Hanson (Richard Lane), which crashes in front of him. Shaken up, George returns to base drunk and accuses Brit pilot Garth Hilton (Douglas Walton) of hanky-panky with his wife. Lee can’t get through to her drunken hubby, who becomes grounded because he’s unfit for duty, that he’s drinking himself into the grave. Garth takes George’s flight out of concern for his wife and crashes to his death. The crazed George forces Ellis at gunpoint to go with him on the next flight, and bails out during flight over one of the dangerous turns. The inexperienced pilot Ellis then crashes to death. That leaves Lee to be with the pilot she loves, Paul Smith (Chester Morris). Both Smith and Lee are now free to return to the States and marry, and start life fresh.