A young pilot in the German air force of 1918, disliked as lower-class and unchivalrous, tries ambitiously to earn the medal offered for 20 kills.

A biplane pilot who had missed flying in WWI takes up barnstorming and later a movie career in his quest for the glory he had missed.

Spend time on both sides of World War I, partly with German flying ace Baron Manfred Von Richthofen (John Phillip Law), aka "The Red Baron," and his colorful "flying circus" of Fokker fighter planes, during the time from his arrival at the war front to his death in combat. On the other side is Roy Brown of the Royal Air Force, sometimes credited with shooting Richthofen down.

Two former WWI aces from opposite sides, Bill Ramsey and Otto Shumann, in the best tradition of Eddie Rickenbacker and the Red Baron, barnstorm their way across the Poverty Row skies of middle-America while competing for daredevil honors and the favors of the lovely Eve.