Jerome Littlefield becomes a hospital orderly, hoping to become a doctor like his father. Afflicted with a "neurotic identification empathy" which causes him to suffer the pains of his patients, Jerome creates mayhem in his bungling attempts to help. Dr. Jean Howard, once in love with Jerome's father and now head of the hospital, is fond of him, however, and refuses to fire him. Although nurse Julie Blair is in love with Jerome, he falls in love with Susan Andrews, a young patient hospitalized after an attempted suicide. When he takes on extra duties to pay the young woman's bills, she offers him her love out of gratitude; but their first kiss is disappointing, and Jerome concludes that he must really be in love with Julie. Upon learning that the neglected Julie has run away, Jerome chases her in an ambulance. After creating an enormous traffic snarl, he wins back his true love; with his emotions properly oriented, Jerome overcomes his neurosis and makes plans to marry Julie and enter medical school.