Scion of a wealthy New York family, Captain Hank Mitchell is a hot shot fighter pilot flying escort for American bombers as they penetrate Nazi-occupied Europe. His P-51 is hit over Germany and he bails out over the English Channel. Burned terribly, he is pulled from the freezing water of the English Channel to realize his life has forever changed. Angry and bitter, he meets Doctor Roger Hanson, an Army Air Corps flight surgeon, who knows that Hank’s best chance is to take part in the RAF’s cutting edge burn treatment program.

Choosing not to return to the States, Hank is sent to a small hospital in Kent. Roger Hanson and his British colleagues start Hank on the long road to recovery. Fighting through his own doubts and the pain of healing, Hank slowly regains use of his hand. He meets Kate Murray, an English nurse who lost her husband early in the war. They develop a friendship that blossoms into love. Completing his course of treatment, Hank is able to return to his old squadron, but he is not the man his comrades remember. Scarred for life, he must learn how to deal with the air war over the continent and his own bitterness. Perhaps facing his greatest challenge, Hank Mitchell is now a man with an inner strength forged in the flames of battle.