Two flyers during World War II get caught up in shenanigans with an international smuggler and his girlfriend.

In 1946, former Air Force pilots Brynie MacKay and Mike Brewer are operating an impoverished cargo operation out of Algeria. Embittered because the war prevented him from becoming a teacher and eager for the big money, Brynie accepts an offer from international smuggler Lee Harris to ferry Egyptian cotton to France. When Brynie learns he is flying contraband cigarettes, he extracts a larger fee from Harris, who retaliates by hiding narcotics in Brynie's plane and then reporting him to Colonel Wilson of U. S. Counterintelligence. After Brynie's payment has been confiscated and his plane impounded, he is taken to Harris' estate by the latter's mistress, Elena, the daughter of an aristocrat who has fallen on hard times. When Harris agrees to put Brynie back in business by giving him 12 more illegal cargo runs, Mike warns that they will probably both be killed after the completion of the assignment. Brynie, wanting the cash to buy his own plane, ignores the advice until Mike later tells him that he has set a trap for Harris by divulging the flight plans to Colonel Wilson. Unwilling to give up Harris' money, Brynie tries to land the plane safely away from Wilson's waiting men. Harris suspects a hijacking scheme, however, and in the ensuing struggle kills Mike before being knocked unconscious by Brynie. After landing the plane at an abandoned military air strip, Brynie informs Wilson over the phone of the whereabouts of the contraband and then escapes to North Africa with Elena. When Harris tracks them down, Brynie retaliates for Mike's murder by smashing Harris' head against a steel plate. Wilson arrives on the scene, takes Harris into custody, and announces that because of the deal he made with Mike he will not arrest Brynie. Brynie decides to return to America with Elena and become a teacher.