After his wife Jane (Helen Westcott) admits to an extramarital affair, Iowa attorney David Trask (Gary Merrill) abandons her and their daughters and heads for Los Angeles.

Troubled alcoholic Dr. Robert Fortness (Michael Rennie), haunted by his responsibility for a car accident in which a colleague, Dr. Tim Brooks (Hugh Beaumont) was killed, is returning home to his wife Claire (Beatrice Straight) and teenage son Jerry (Ted Donaldson), and plans to tell the district attorney the truth about the accident.

Boisterous traveling salesman Eddie Hoke (Keenan Wynn), who is always ready with a bad joke or a silly idea, shares a photograph of his young, attractive wife Marie (Bette Davis) wearing a swimsuit.

When a storm forces the aircraft (Douglas DC-3) to land en route, they continue to share their life stories during the unexpected four-hour layover.

Marie reveals that early in her marriage she had left Eddie, whom she found to be vulgar and tiresome, for another man, Marty Nelson (Warren Stevens).

While Marie was in the hospital, confined to an iron lung and feeling hopeless, Eddie, completely forgiving her and saying, "Hiya, beautiful," came to take her home.

Marie's story teaches Trask a lesson about marital infidelity and true reconciliation; he calls Jane to tell her he is returning home.

When Gary Merrill's wife Bette Davis read the script, she suggested he ask director Negulesco if she could play the relatively small role of Marie Hoke, feeling "it would be a change of pace for me.