An Air Force nurse about to leave the service is badly disfigured about her face in a car accident in which she also loses her baby. Her husband cannot deal with her disfigurement and she goes through a depression wondering why she was kept alive. The drunk driver who ploughed into her car is let off with a very lenient punishment, too. A doctor at the hospital sees potential in reconstructing this nurse's face. This doctor extends her enlistment so this nurse will be eligible for medical treatment covered by the armed forces over the entire course of the reconstructive surgeries. In the course of the reconstruction, the doctor and the nurse must overcome several obstacles. These range from the personal, where the nurse wonders if the doctor is only doing this for his own fame, to the bureaucracy, which has problems with the use of labial tissue from the vaginal area to reconstruct the nurse's lips. All through her treatment the nurse continues her duties at the hospital when she is well enough to work. She befriends a blinded patient while her jaws are wired shut. She is so afraid that he will not like her when he regains he sight. He does not and thanks his "Silent Angel" for the care she has given him. This boosts her morale greatly. In the end the nurse makes a full recovery. When her enlistment ends she joins the doctor in the private practice he has set up after leaving the Air Force. They marry.