This story opens with John Bradford throwing a graduation party for his son, Jim, who has just earned a degree in engineering. John has planned to make his son a partner in his engineering firm for many years. However, Jim has decided to enter the ministry. He is hesitant to tell his father because he knows his father will be upset. After he tells his father his intentions, his father does all that he can to try to dissuade him from going. But Jim does go away to seminary. Alice, who is John's secretary, has been dating Jim for years. She continues to write him while he attends four years of seminary. When he completes his classes he applies for foreign service and is assigned duty in New Guinea. He has a hard time telling Alice his plans because it would mean that she would have to go with him if they get married. Jim explains that while he was a soldier in WWII he realized that there were millions of impoverished people throughout the world that didn't know about Jesus Christ and he felt he was called to help teach them about Jesus. Jim flies to New Guinea and one day he sends a telegram asking Alice to marry him. Alice flies to New Guinea and joins Jim. They get married and have two children, a boy and a girl. But then Jim catches a life threatening disease. Jim's parents, John and Dora Bradford, fly to New Guinea. After a few days Jim dies. He has kept a journal which he gives to his father before he dies. Alice and the children return to live with Jim's parents. John reads Jim's diary over and over trying to find comfort. He wonders why Jim had to die if he was doing so much good. After reading Jim's journal over and over and pondering Jim's life, John decides that maybe he has been to lax in his devotion to his religious beliefs. He decides he wants to serve like Jim did, but not in the exact same way. Instead, he travels around the US speaking to congregations encouraging them to become involved in the missionary works all over the world by sending missionaries to impoverished areas and supporting them financially. The film ends with John completing one of his speeches about how important it is for people to be actively involved in being a disciple of Christ.