Once a Doctor

Excerpts from the Hippocratic Oath appear before the title card, signaling the ethical framework for the doctors. The text frames medicine as a solemn duty and foreshadows the moral conflicts to come.

Jerry and Steven Brace are foster brothers and physicians who work at the same hospital as their father. Both brothers are in love with Paula Nordland, creating a triangle of loyalty and desire that complicates their professional lives.

Jerry, off duty and intoxicated, takes nurse Ruby Horton on a drunken ride and crashes. He begs Steven to save her, but Ruby dies because no antitoxin is given. Steven later discovers that Jerry failed to order the shot, and Jerry passes out.

Steven recounts the incident to their father and Dr. Adams but keeps the doctor involved unnamed. Dr. Brace warns that confessing could ruin their careers and their relationship. Steven urges Jerry to confess, but Jerry lies and blames Steven, resulting in Steven being fired and barred from future medical practice.

Nordland offers Steven a position as a male nurse at a clinic. At the clinic, Dr. Lewis congratulates Steven on his fifth life saving, though the surgery remains secret. When a child is injured in a street accident, Steven urges Brace to perform the Nordland Decompression with Paula present, despite Brace's initial reluctance as the police arrive during the operation.

Brace and Paula testify in court, and the magistrate is prepared to wait, but word comes that the child has died. Steven is convicted of manslaughter; Brace washes his hands of him and Jerry uses the moment to manipulate Paula, claiming that Steven is unfit to practice medicine.

One year later, Steven is paroled and placed under Nordland's custody. Nordland reveals that the autopsy shows Steven's surgery was indistinguishable from his own, making his Nordland Decompressions valuable to medical science. He cannot practice in the United States, but Nordland has established a charity clinic in Cuba.

Dr. Brace, Jerry, and Paula sail to Havana on a private yacht while Steven sails on the Orlando, a Cuban freighter whose ship's doctor is a friend of the Nordlands. The voyage sets up a new chapter for their lives away from the United States.

On the yacht, Paula and Brace react to Jerry's drinking as a storm rages. During the voyage Brace falls overboard while Jerry remains intoxicated, and later Jerry wants to operate on a basal fracture. The yacht's radio distress calls draw the Orlando nearer, and the vessels press on toward a rendezvous.

There is no easy way to bring Steven aboard. He reaches the yacht by breeches buoy after the captain fires a line. He arrives just as Jerry is about to operate, but Paula interrupts and asks Steven to administer the anesthetic.

In a Havana hotel, Nordland interrupts Steven and Paula to announce that Steven will be introduced to the board as the superintendent of his clinic. Brace arrives with a telegram from Jerry, announcing that he has confessed and will go away for good, described as his first decent act.

Steven agrees to keep Dr Brace's name and to share it with Paula, signaling a quiet reconciliation. They seal their resolve with a kiss as they move toward a future in medicine and love.