Early one morning, a room-service waiter at a New York City hotel is horrified to discover that the young man to whom he has just delivered breakfast (Basehart) is standing on the narrow ledge outside his room on the 15th floor. Charlie Dunnigan (Douglas), a policeman on traffic duty in the street below, tries to talk him off the ledge to no avail. He is ordered back to traffic patrol by New York City Police Department Emergency Service Unit deputy chief Moksar (Da Silva), but he is ordered to return when the man on the ledge will not speak to psychiatrists summoned to the scene. Coached by a psychiatrist (Martin Gabel), Dunnigan tries to relate to the man on the ledge as one human to another.<ref name='TCMsummary'/>