A feud between Coast Guardsmen heats up when one falls for the other's daughter.
When "ladies man" Mike O'Shay, a seaman in the Coast Guard, arrives at a new base, he collides with pretty librarian Doris Malone and, unaware that she is the daughter of Petty Officer William "Medals" Malone, begins a flirtation with her. Rebuffed by Doris, Mike ventures to "Sadies," the local tavern, where he brawls with Medals over a teenage girl. After the fight, Mike receives aid from a now sympathetic Doris, who is then surprised by the return of her equally battered father. When Medals, who has picked clean-cut, ambitious Steve Webb to marry Doris, sees Mike, he throws the seaman out of his house. He then has him assigned to his ship, while at the same time encouraging Steve to propose to Doris. On the night that Steve is to "pop the question," however, Mike slips away from the ship and sneaks over to the Malones' house. Steve, seeing Doris with Mike, goes back to the ship before proposing, but covers for Mike when Medals inquires about his whereabouts. Medals then tries to keep Steve off a three-week ice patrol, to which Mike is also assigned, but Steve tells him that he would rather fight fairly for Doris and insists on joining the crew. During an iceberg detonation test, Mike, who has been forced by Medals to perform the most gruelling tasks, starts a brawl with Medals, which causes the escape boat to unmoor. When the other seamen realize that the boat has drifted away, Steve tries to stop the blast but is caught in the explosion. Badly injured, Steve is flown to the base hospital, and Mike is called for a court-martial. Shamed by his behavior both on the iceberg and at Mike's trial, Medals resigns from the Guard, while Mike is jailed on the ship's brig. After Steve dies of his injuries, Doris announces to Medals that she and Mike are going to marry. That same night, a hurricane rips through the area, and both Medals and Mike, hearing the call of duty, force their way back to the ship, which has been called by a floundering yacht. After rescuing the yacht passengers, Medals sacrifices himself to save Mike and goes down with the boat. Many years later, Mike nicknames his son "Medals" in honor of his feisty father-in-law.
