After a brief meteorology lesson on just what causes hurricanes, we start with a pilot coshing his mate and stealing a plane. Sadly, that's about as exciting as this gets as we discover that the pilot is WWII veteran "Slattery" (Richard Widmark) who has been quite happily flying around Florida delivering what needs delivering - regardless of what it is! Anyway, as he powers through the sky and into the path of the eponymous storm, he starts to have flashbacks of just what led him to his current predicament. That's where we come in. We get to share those memories as his fairly selfish behaviour ...