Dr. Ben Casey is at odds with the medical board, particularly Dr. Zorba and Dr. Jensen, because of his manner toward interns. Under a reprimand, Casey tries to persuade the board to approve neurosurgery on nine-year-old Pete Salazar.

After the first of three operations on the boy, Casey is accidentally jabbed with a needle while administering a rabies test to a female patient. During his thirty-day wait for a life-or-death prognosis, he is given permission to resume the surgery.

Casey has Walter Tyson for a patient, the president of a large corporation in difficulties, who makes treatment impossible by ordering him about. Zorba and Dr. Jensen try to dissuade him from withdrawing, because his patient is a big donor to the hospital.

Tony Romano, a struggling nightclub comic, suffers a cranial seizure. Dr. Casey operates, but Tony is left a paraplegic.

Sorrow and pity.

Might and main.