The Reverend Norman Vincent Peale fights to bring his message to the nation.

Twelve-year-old Norman Vincent Peale determines never to become a clergyman because of the insults he has suffered as the son of a smalltown Ohio minister. He changes his mind when, years later, as a Detroit crime reporter, he becomes frustrated by his inability to relieve much of the suffering and misfortune he reports. He enters a seminary and is there regarded as a rebel because he believes in a God of love rather than of vengeance, but his zeal increases church attendance wherever he preaches. In Syracuse he convinces pretty co-ed Ruth Stafford that the life of a minister's wife can be exciting; and after their honeymoon he accepts a position at New York City's Marble Collegiate Church. His methods and preachings are criticized as his fame grows; but through radio, articles in magazines, and a syndicated newspaper column he develops his thesis that God helps those who help themselves. With the publication of his book The Power of Positive Thinking , the condemnation of his theological attitudes reaches new heights; and he is about to resign from his pulpit when an experience with a critically ill child, who is given no chance for survival by medical science but nevertheless rallies after Peale keeps a night-long prayer vigil, renews his faith in all he has written and preached. He decides to remain with his church.