When an in-flight collision incapacitates the pilots of an airplane bound for Los Angeles, stewardess Nancy Pryor is forced to take over the controls. From the ground, her boyfriend Alan Murdock, a retired test pilot, tries to talk her through piloting and landing the 747 aircraft. Worse yet, the anxious passengers — among which are a noisy nun and a cranky man — are aggravating the already tense atmosphere.

Vietnam veteran Jud Carney returns to Los Angeles at Christmas time and finds out it's not how he thought it was going to be. When Jud discovers his fiancee has left him, he moves into a boarding house peopled with "types." Flashback memories of the war and the suicide of a fellow house resident reduce Jud to a broken and bitter man.