Brilliant young surgeon Anthony Halliday is forced to resign as chief of staff at a New York hospital when he is compelled to delay an appendectomy on the daughter of John Mitchell, wealthy supporter of the hospital, because of an emergency operation he must perform. The appendectomy is successful, but later complications cause the girl's death. Carol Andrews, his fiancée, regards him as a failure and leaves him. Halliday, suffering from amnesia brought on by the shocks, drifts to Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he gets work in the steel mill. He only remembers who he is when he finds himself bandaging some injured workers. The mill doctor, Miller, asks him to become his assistant. Halliday remains at the mill under the name of John Davis. Because of many accidents at the mill, the smelter boss, Joe Kosovic is demoted. He becomes friendly with Halliday and invites him home for dinner, where he becomes attracted to Gerta, Joe school-teacher daughter. Accidents increase at the mill, and the mill's safety and personnel man, Brant, is ordered to investigate. Brant is actually in the pay of a rival firm trying to shut the mill. In school, Gerta hears Danny Brant talking about a game called "Steel-Mill" that has a point of dropping bricks on people's heads. He sullenly refuses to tell Gerta that his father's conversations with his conspirators inspired it. Gerta informs Halliday about it, and he begins to investigate Brant's activities.