One day, while driving outside Harbor, Maine, with the reckless and inconsiderate Joe Pettigrew, Lou Jellison insists on picking up hitchhiker Bud Dolliver. Joe recognizes Bud as a former resident of Harbor and tells him that the townspeople believe that, during his seven-year absence, he was in jail. In Harbor, Bud drops by a beer parlor and runs into Nina, a girl friend from his wild youth. Although Nina is anxious to rekindle their romance, Bud explains that he has returned to his home town in order to straighten out his life and find a job. After Nina helps Bud find a room in a boardinghouse, he looks for a job at the Coastal Sardine Canneries company. There Bud again encounters Lou, who works as a secretary, and she takes him to see the personnel manager, who turns out to be Joe. When Joe refuses to hire Bud, Lou suggests that he try Kelsey Bunker at the boat yard. Kelsey, who operates a machine shop, hires Bud and immediately instructs him to guide a suspended engine into a boat hull. As Bud is doing so, Kelsey's ne'er-do-well son Junior accidentally causes the engine to collapse on Bud, who passes out. While Bud is unconscious, Kelsey opens his shirt to examine him and notices a Marine tattoo and a scar on his chest. Realizing that Bud is a veteran, Kelsey asks Junior why Bud has been telling everyone that he was incarcerated during the war. When Bud revives, he explains that his scar is the result of a wound suffered while stopping a grenade in Tarawa, but asks Kelsey not to tell anyone about it. Later, Joe invites Lou to have lunch with him, but she declines and breaks their date for that evening. Lou then meets Bud at a diner and reveals that Kelsey told her about his war experience. Curious, Lou asks Bud why he has returned to a town where he is so maligned, and he states that he is determined to live down his reputation without falling back on his war record. Lou asks Bud to take her out that night, but when Bud arrives at Lou's parents' house, he is rebuffed by her father Curtis. Defying her father, Lou goes with Bud to a movie, and Junior later reports to Joe that he saw the couple together. After making another date with Lou, Bud returns to his shack at the boat yard, where he finds Joe waiting for him. The two men engage in a fight, during which Joe strikes Bud on his already sore chest. The next morning, Lou's mother Edna complains to Lou that she was seen with Bud the night before, and suggests that he robbed a drugstore after dropping her off. Edna also mentions that the thief had a cut on his hand, because blood was found on the drugstore cash register. At work, just after Bud buys a boat from Kelsey, he is questioned about a cut on his hand, which he acquired while fighting with Joe. Bud also explains that he got the boat money from his uncle. Later, after Lou slaps Joe for trying to kiss her, Lou asks Bud to marry her, and he accepts. Lou's parents, however, refuse to give their consent, and depressed, Bud goes drinking at the local bar. There he flirts with Nina and gets into a fight with Junior. Afterward, Bud takes Nina to his shack, but Nina soon surmises that he is still in love with Lou and leaves. Lou then suggests to Bud that they elope, and while the couple is in Vermont trying to convince a judge to marry them, Junior steals Bud's jungle knife. After the judge refuses to marry Bud and Lou, Bud returns home to find Sheriff McBride waiting for him. The sheriff explains that Bud's knife was found at the cannery office, which was robbed the night before. Concerned about Lou's reputation, Bud refuses to explain where he was the previous night and prepares to be arrested. Anticipating that he will be the next robbery victim, garage owner Jed Gillis, meanwhile, sets a bear trap to catch the thieves, and that night, Junior is caught. While his accomplice, Joe, tries to free him, he inadvertently sets the place on fire. Joe rushes to tell the sheriff that Junior is trapped inside, and Bud braves the flames to rescue Junior. Afterward, Bud, who was cleared in the cannery robbery by Lou, is completely exonerated and hailed as a hero by his home town.