In 1940, Corky Jones and Gil Borden come to Burbank, California, looking for jobs. They get work at the Lockheed Corporation aircraft factory. Though the United States is still neutral, the country is frantically gearing up for war, and Lockheed is producing fighters and bombers. As he has little money before his first paycheck, Corky stays with his friend Brad Maple and his wife Roma (whom he tried to pick up earlier before he knew who she was). Brad is unemployed, even though factory jobs are plentiful, because he thinks they are beneath him. This strains the marriage.