Among those who are fighting to have Congress re-establish the military academy at West Point in the beginning of the nineteenth century is a young Washington socialite, Carolyn Bainbridge. Congress resolves to revive the Academy on a one-year trial basis. Major Sam Carter, a martinet who doesn't believe a college can produce real fighting men, is made the Commandant, and determines to make soldiers - or failures - out of the small band of cadets, by enforcing stringent disciplinary action. Among the cadets are Howard Shelton, Carolyn's fiancée, and Dawson, a Kentucky frontiersman. There is bad blood between the two from the start, and matters are worsened when Dawson falls in love with Carolyn. Many of the cadets resign, under the discouraging conditions and grueling punishment that is part of Carter's plan to make the school hard and the exercises difficult, and the number of cadets left is down to ten.