Hotshot ensign Alan Drake (Robert Taylor (actor)), fresh from the flying academy at Pensacola, Florida, gets off to a bad start with the pilots of an elite squadron, nicknamed the "Hellcats", to which he has been posted in San Diego. Making a nearly disastrous landing attempt in heavy fog against orders and disqualifying the squadron during a competitive shooting exercise by colliding with the target drogue does not endear him to his fellow pilots. He also asks out a woman he has met, Lorna (Ruth Hussey), not knowing that she is the squadron commander Billy Gary's (Walter Pidgeon) wife.