To eliminate internal opposition, a cruel CEO sabotages and humiliates a good-natured executive in an effort to force his resignation — and make the reticent new hire his new yes man.

"Patterns" was an American television play broadcast live on January 12, 1955, remade as a film the next year with some of the same cast. Fred Staples is the newest executive in a large firm. He strikes up a friendship with Andy Sloane, the Vice President to whom he nominally reports. Staples is good at his job and the company's hard-nosed president, Walter Ramsey, is pleased with his choice. Staples has a crisis of conscience when Ramsey tells him that he's been recruited to replace Sloane, someone who has devoted his entire life to the company at the expense of his family. Sloane knows what Ramsey is up to but digs in his heels and refuses to quit. Tragedy ensues forcing Staples to make a choice.