Dorian "Dodo" Doubeday (William Tracy), an information clerk in a railroad station, has a photography memory. "Dodo" takes advantage of every free moment to devour the pages of the U. S. army manuals, because he knows he will soon be drafted at the same time as his buddy Charlie Cobb (Noah Beery, Jr.), who is addicted to playing practical jokes and doesn't share the same enthusiasm for being in the army. They are sent to same basic-training camp as Jeanne (Elyse Knox), who has joined the Servicemen Entertainment League, attached to all the service encampments. Because of his genius for memorizing data "Dodo" is made a sergeant.T his arouses resentment among the group of tough guys with whom he and Charlie had been drafted and, also , regular-army Sergeant William Ames, who does everything in his power to prove "Dodo's " inefficiency to Captain Rossmead (Douglas Fowley0 and Major Greer (Wiliam Gould). But "Dodo" always comes out on top when he manages to recite some obscure army regulation which justifies his unorthodox action. To make things tougher on "Dodo", Sergeant Ames has him assigned as an orderly to Colonel "Spitfire" Barkley (James Gleason), the toughest taskmaster in the army...who also knows the army regulations from A-to-Z. Is there trouble on the horizon for "Dodo"?