Malcom McDowell, who went on to play a chillingly heartless young man in , here plays Bruce, a cheerful young athlete and aspiring writer whose injuries get the better of him on the evening of his colorless brother's wedding. He loses the use of his legs and is sent to a home for the handicapped. As a result of his disability, his attitude undergoes a profound change, and he becomes a surly, resentful and difficult young man. At the home, he meets a young woman (Nanette Newman) whose disability has lasted much longer than his, and they fall in love. They become engaged, but she dies before they can get married. While this sounds relentlessly melancholy, the heart of the movie is the way in which each of the two has enriched the life of the other, and the movie is a good deal more upbeat than it sounds.