American pilot Cliff Brandon, fighting the Japanese in China, finds himself the unintentional "owner" of a Chinese housekeeper, Shu-Jen. The unlikely couple falls in love and marries, but not without tragedy brought on by the war.
In China gruff Air Force captain Cliff Brandon wakes up after a night of drinking to discover he has purchased the housekeeping services of comely, young Shu-Jen from her father. Disappointed by Cliff's insistence on staying out late in bars, Shu-Jen leaves for home when Cliff, made aware that she is carrying her child, finds her and marries her in a delightful traditional Chinese ceremony. Happy days are spent as Shu-Jen and her infant daughter join Cliff at a forward base until Cliff, returning from a supply-drop mission, hears the base is under attack by Japanese bombers.—Doug Sederberg <[email protected]>
In China, in 1943, after the Japanese have cut off supply lines and American pilots are ferrying food, medical supplies and refugees, Capt. Cliff Brandon (Victor Mature) lands at the American air base in Kunming after a flight from India. Cliff, who has been saddled with an inexperienced crew, has become demoralized and morose as a result of his war experiences and spends most of his free time drinking in Sadie's Place, a local bar where he is often propositioned by young women.
One night, Cliff leaves the bar in a drunken state and encounters an old man (W.T. Chang) in the street, who offers him the company of a young woman. Unable to communicate with the old man, Cliff wakes up the next morning to find that the girl, Shu-Jen (Li Hua Li), has followed him home and intends to stay. Father Cairns (Ward Bond), a priest who operates St. Joseph's Mission, visits Cliff for coffee, and Cliff quickly explains the misunderstanding about the girl, then orders Ellington (Danny Chang), a young Chinese boy who spends time at the airfield, to get rid of her. Later, after Cairns finds Shu-Jen outside Sadie's expecting to get a job as a "hostess," he takes her with him to the mission.
When Cliff visits Cairns for a game of chess, the priest explains that Shu-Jen is one of 11 children, three of whom have died, and that Cliff, in his drunken state, agreed to hire her as a bonded servant for three months. Cairns adds that pride decrees that she act as his housekeeper and that the money will certainly help her family. Initially, Cliff refuses, but relents and takes Shu-Jen to Alice Nichols (Elaine Devry), an American Red Cross canteen worker, to find clean clothes for her. Meanwhile, Dan O'Neill (Stuart Whitman), one of Cliff's crew, is romancing Mona Perkins (Ann McCrea), another Red Cross volunteer. At his home, Cliff instructs Ellington to tell Shu-Jen that she is to be only his housekeeper, then asks the boy to stay with him as house guest and chaperon. After Col. Wiley (Denver Pyle) assigns Cliff to fly refugees to Calcutta, he returns with medical supplies for Cairns and a small brooch for Shu-Jen.
However, Cliff has a malaria attack and, delirious, allows Shu-Jen to lie beside him for comfort. Cliff recovers, but goes to tell Cairns that "something happened" and that Shu-Jen should go home. Upon discovering that Shu-Jen is pregnant, Alice, a war widow who has become romantically involved with crew member Phil Gates (Bob Mathias), tells Cliff that he has neither honor, nor decency.
When Cliff returns home, he finds that Shu-Jen has just left for her home. Cliff drives after her, finds her and tells her that, although it has taken him a while to realize it, he is in love with her. However, when Cliff enlists Ellington's help in formally proposing marriage, Shu-Jen declines, fearful that their marriage will create problems for him. With Cairns's help, Cliff finally convinces Shu-Jen, and they are married in a traditional Chinese ceremony. At the ceremony, Wiley tells Cliff and his crew that they have to leave the next day to fly out of a different base. Later, Cliff, now a changed man, receives word that Shu-Jen has had a baby girl and a few weeks later, when Alice and Mona are reassigned to the same base, they bring Shu-Jen, who has learned some English, the baby and Ellington with them.
After a successful mission to drop supplies to troops on an offensive in Burma, Cliff and his crew learn that their airbase is being bombed by the Japanese. Although fired on by enemy planes, Cliff manages to land and plans to evacuate the base. Tragically, he learns that Shu-Jen has been killed in the attack and that the baby is missing. As Wylie has also been killed, Cliff is now in command and orders the plane to leave without him. Cliff then goes back to where Shu-Jen was killed and hears a baby crying. In a pile of rubble, Cliff finds his daughter alive, under the body of Ellington, who died protecting her. A Japanese plane returns to strafe the base and Cliff is hit. He places his identification tags in the baby's hands, then mans an anti-aircraft gun and shoots down several planes before being killed in a direct hit.
In 1957, at Los Angeles International Airport, Alice and Phil, Dan and Mona, and others from Cliff's crew eagerly await the arrival of a flight. After many years of searching, Father Cairns has located Cliff and Shu-Jen's daughter in an orphanage in Hong Kong and has sent her to America to be looked after by her parents' friends. A teenager (Tita Aragon), displaying Cliff's dog tags, descends the steps from the plane, and they all embrace.
