Bob Merrick is a spoiled playboy whose reckless ways culminate in a speedboat crash that leaves him badly hurt. Rescuers summon a resuscitator from Dr. Phillips's house across the lake, and while that device saves his life, Dr. Phillips suffers a fatal heart attack. Merrick ends up as a patient at Phillips's clinic, where the staff harbor resentment toward him for causing the death, even if unintentionally.
Helen Phillips, Dr. Phillips's widow, is flooded with calls, letters, and visitors offering to repay loans that her husband had refused to accept during his life. Edward Randolph, a famous artist and close friend of Dr. Phillips, explains to Helen the meaning behind that famous phrase, helping her understand why he left so little money despite a thriving practice.
> it was already used up.
Merrick, who had once studied medicine but walked away from it, begins to sense why people dislike him. He escapes the clinic, collapses in front of Helen's car, and ends up back at the hospital, where she learns his link to her husband's death.
After his discharge, Merrick slips into a party and gets drunk before driving off. He ends up at Randolph's home, where the artist elaborates on the secret belief that powered both his own art and Dr. Phillips's success. Merrick resolves to try this philosophy. While attempting to make amends with Helen, she steps into the path of a car to escape him, and the accident leaves her blind.
Merrick then soberly commits to becoming a doctor, hoping to honor Dr. Phillips's legacy, and he has fallen in love with Helen. He helps her adjust to blindness by presenting himself as Robby, a poor medical student.
Secretly, he arranges for Helen to travel to Europe to consult the best eye surgeons in the world. After extensive tests, these surgeons tell Helen there is no hope for recovery. Soon after, Robby returns to her hotel to offer emotional support and discovers that Helen has guessed his real identity. Merrick asks Helen to marry him. Later that night, Helen fears she would be a burden to him and runs away.
Many years pass. Merrick has become a dedicated and successful brain surgeon who quietly continues philanthropic acts and keeps searching for Helen. One evening, Randolph arrives with news that Helen is very sick, possibly dying, in a small hospital in the Southwest. Merrick travels to the bedside, where Helen requires complex brain surgery to save her life, and he performs it. After a long night waiting for the outcome, Helen awakens, sees again, and reunites with Merrick.
