This story is a true account of the lives of Scott and Marsha Carter. Having graduated from medical school, Scott Carter, a fair-skinned African American, marries Marsha Mitchell and moves to Georgia. When he arrives at the black clinic in Georgia, he discovers that the job must inconveniently go to a Southerner. Discussions between two nurses at this clinic suggest that Scott's light skin may have some bearing on the decision not to hire him. Defeated but not conquered, Scott returns to Massachusetts to live with his in-laws until he can get employment. He tries unsuccessfully to obtain employment as an African American. Because Marsha is pregnant, Scott decides to take a job at Portsmouth Hospital, but he reluctantly does so as a white man. While there, he manages to save the life of Dr. Bracket, who encourages him to take a postion in Keenham, New Hampshire. Scott decides to continue "passing" for white. In Keenham, Dr. Scott Carter proves to be quite a success for the town. For twenty years, Dr. and Mrs. Carter live peacefully in Keenham with son, Howard and daughter, Shelley. All goes well until Scott and Howard decide to enter the military during World War II. When Scott applies for officer status with the Navy, an investigation reveals his black heritage, and he is barred from receiving a commission.—Broncine G. Carter

In 1922, at the Chase Medical School outside Chicago, Scott Carter graduates at the top of his class, with members of his black fraternity. That afternoon, Scott marries his girl friend, Marcia, and they leave for his internship at a Georgia hospital. The internship was arranged by Scott's good friend, Dr. Charles Frederick Howard, a prominent black physician. When the hospital administrator sees that Scott is light-skinned, he tells him that he can only accept Southern applicants. Consequently, Scott and Marcia are forced to move in with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Morris Mitchell, in Brookline, Massachussetts, where they live among white people, and where Marcia, who is also light-skinned, has never been identified as a black. At a dinner party at Dr. Howard's, Scott is advised by his black friends to act white in order to get employment. After Marcia gets pregnant, Scott acquiesces and accepts an internship at a white hospital. One weekend, Scott saves a New England doctor named Walter Brackett from complications from a bleeding ulcer, and the doctor befriends him. Brackett later offers Scott his father's family practice in the small town of Keenham, New Hampshire, where he had practiced for 15 years before his death the previous fall. When Scott confesses that he is black, Brackett advises him to be practical and build a reputation first, then later reveal his ethnicity. In 1924, Scott and Marsha move into the old Brackett home, and are soon accepted fully into the community, where they raise their son Howard and daughter Shelley as whites. Scott, meanwhile, secretly practices one day a week at Dr. Howard's clinic in Boston with his friend from college, Jesse Pridham. One weekend, young Howard, a composer, brings home a black friend named Arthur "Coop" Cooper, and Shelley, embarrassed by the presence of a black man in her house, calls him a "coon" and is sternly upbraided by her father. Later, Howard goes to boot-camp, and Scott applies for a Navy commission. Coop, meanwhile, is denied a commission because he is black. Scott is made a lieutenant-commander in the Navy, but on the night of his farewell parade, which the townspeople have organized, he is visited by an agent of Navy Intelligence. After Scott is forced to confess that he is black, his commission is revoked. Scott finally tells Howard, who is on leave from boot-camp, the truth, and, devastated, Howard runs away to New York City to live among blacks in Harlem. Before he leaves, Howard breaks up with his white girlfriend, and Shelley sadly breaks up with her white boyfriend. Scott, meanwhile, bravely waits three days at the Navy Yard for an assignment before he is turned down; he then goes to stay at the Howard clinic. Meanwhile, in New York, Howard intervenes in a tenement brawl to save a man and is arrested, but refuses to reveal his identity. A black policeman gently coaxes Howard's story from him, and defends his parents' actions. Coop's father is a well-known judge, and soon Howard is released into Coop's custody. Later, Howard is reconciled with his father at the Howard clinic, and they go home together. At a Sunday church service, Reverend John Taylor, a loyal friend of the Carters, preaches against ignorance and racial prejudice, encouraging the Carters to stay in Keenham. An announcement is then made that the U. S. government has declared that commissions in the Navy will be extended to all men, regardless of color or creed. Shelley exits the church alone.