Air Force Major Lloyd Gruver (Marlon Brando) is reassigned into some Japanese air base, and is confronted with US racial prejudice against the Japanese individuals. The matter is compounded because a number of the soldiers become involved with women, in defiance of US military policy. Normally a officer who is by the book, Gruver needs to take a situation when a friend of his, an enlisted man Joe Kelly (Red Buttons) falls deeply in love with a Japanese woman Katsumi (Miyoshi Umeki) and marries her. Gruver threats his position by functioning as best man.