Bill Rourk, an ex-Coast Guard crew chief, is tricked into volunteering for the Coact Guard Officer's Training School, following the Japanese sneak-attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Rourk wants to keep the higher-paying and more-secure job in a civilian shipyard. Coast Guard Commander McFarland first meets Rourk at the shipyard and later is his superior officer at the officer's-training-school. Rourk fails to get his Ensign's commission, then finds he has been assigned to McFarland's command at sea. Also: both men are attracted to Louise Ryan, the admiral's daughter.