Dr. Gray Thompson, (Randolph Scott) an American missionary doctor, works alongside Dr. Sara Durand (Ruth Warrick) in a hospital he has built in a small hilltop Chinese village, while Japanese forces descend on China. When Gray returns from a trip, he shocks Sara (who is in love with him) by introducing his new socialite wife, Louise (Ellen Drew). Bored and feeling out of place, Louise tries to persuade him to give up his dangerous cause. In the midst of aerial bombing attacks on the village, Dr. Thompson unselfishly helps the local residents, and especially the insurgent leader Chen-Ta (Anthony Quinn) who loves nurse Siu-Mei (Carol Thurston), betrothed to Dr. Kim (Philip Ahn), a sympathetic Chinese/Korean doctor.