In the late 1950s, on the flight back to Cincinnati after a game, Royals basketball player Maurice Stokes collapses and later awakens completely paralyzed. His condition is diagnosed as a delayed reaction to a head injury he recently experienced on the court and is deemed irreversible. However, Maurie’s friend and teammate, Jack Twyman, who resides in Cincinnati and is therefore able to visit often, discovers that Maurie can make rudimentary communication by blinking his eyes and refuses to give up on him. Although Maurie’s parents have mortgaged their home to pay his medical bills, Jack determines that the money they have raised plus $8,000 in Maurie’s savings account and his workmen’s compensation will not come close to covering the $100,000 a year expenses that therapy costs. One night Jack asks his wife Carole, who is pregnant with their second child, if she would consider having an “addition to the family” and, after talking to lawyers, offers to legally adopt Maurie, so that he can raise funds for his therapy. When Maurie’s astonished parents ask why he is willing to do this, Jack admits that he does not have an answer. Later, Dr. Walker explains that Maurie’s brain and muscle tone are healthy, but the physical therapy to re-establish connection between the two is a lengthy and painful process. However, Maurie is determined and eventually regains the ability to pick up a spoon, although with great difficulty. Dorothy Parsons, Maurie’s girl friend, travels from her home in New York to visit Maurie, but he vehemently refuses to see her. After Jack takes her to the door of Maurie’s therapy room, where she can surreptitiously watch his session, she feels relieved to know that Maurie is not giving up. From then on, she writes letters to Maurie and remains in contact with Jack, who works hard to find resources to cover Maurie’s medical expenses. Maurie’s plight and Jack’s attempt to help him are covered in several sports columns, which results in mail from generous, concerned fans who enclose money for his cause. When Maurie’s alma mater, Saint Francis Academy, holds a fundraising benefit luncheon for his expenses, Jack flies there and returns for an evening game. Also willing to help is hotel and resort owner Milton Kutsher, who approaches Jack about arranging a benefit game for Maurie. Jack has lined up league players, but has no venue, because the overhead costs associated with insurance and promotion are too much to make it worthwhile. Milton tells Jack to make a list of what he needs and assures him that he will take care of it. After receiving a donation of a typewriter from IBM, Maurie struggles to type, with his arms in slings to hold them in position. After a week, Maurie completes a one-sentence letter for Jack, asking how he can ever repay him and Jack promises he will think of something. Without warning, Jack is told that a cannery has donated one thousand cans of tomato sauce to Maurie’s cause, but Jack must pick it up immediately or pay for storage. Sacrificing an outing with his daughter Lisa, Jack arranges to sell the cases through a grocery chain and raises $4,700 for Maurie. When Lisa expresses resentment, Carole takes her to the hospital, where they quietly watch from the hall, as Jack assists Maurie. Maurie can now haltingly speak one-syllable words and take small steps aided by bars and leg braces. Although Maurie has refused for a long time to see Dorothy, Jack firmly tells him she will arrive at the end of the week. After Dorothy's visit with Maurie, Jack tells her about Maurie’s constant cheerfulness. Because she understands Maurie better, Dorothy explains that Maurie expresses his despair when no one is around and that she could never love a man who could not cry. Realizing the depth of her feelings, Jack later tells Maurie that he has been safekeeping the engagement ring Maurie had in his pocket on the night he took ill and asks what to do with it, but his question causes Maurie to cry out in anguish. Later, Jack gives the ring to Dorothy, who keeps it overnight, then returns it, thanking Jack for showing it to her and telling him to sell it for Maurie’s expenses. When Milton sets up an outdoor arena for the game on the grounds of his hotel and country club in Monticello, New York, Jack soon realizes that Milton has personally financed much of the event. Enjoying a short respite from their now three children and other responsibilities, Jack and Carole spend time together and he thanks her for never complaining about his dedication to Maurie. Over the years Maurie and his long time nurse, Rosie Sanders, watch broadcasts of the games on the television set in his hospital room. Maurie takes a pottery class as part of his therapy and when he attends Carole’s birthday celebration, he presents her with a bowl he made. Recognizing Dorothy’s sacrifice of flying every weekend to Cincinnati to be with him, Maurie tells her she must live her own life. He arranges for friends and teammates to visit him when she comes and asks them to spend time with her. Seeing through his pretense, Dorothy tells Royals teammate Oscar Robertson that Maurie is trying to find her a boyfriend. She asks Oscar if he wonders why Jack has dedicated so much of his life to Maurie, but Oscar frankly says no, because if he wondered why, he would then have to wonder why he did not. Immediately after Dorothy leaves one day, Maurie asks to be wheeled to a deck overlooking the parking lot. There, he observes that Dorothy is being picked up by a man and he feels both relief and sadness. Soon after, Maurie catches pneumonia, which is particularly dangerous in his condition because it stresses his heart, and after he recuperates, he decides to write a will. After twelve years in basketball, Jack will soon be retiring, and Maurie is concerned that fundraising has left Jack little time to prepare for his second career, as other athletes do. Jack tells Maurie that his last game at the Cincinnati Gardens will be billed as “Jack Twyman Night” and he wants Maurie to be there for him. At first, Maurie is too self-conscious, but Jack insists that this is the way to thank him. On that evening, Carole and the children, the Stokeses, Dorothy, Rosie and other friends are in the auditorium as Jack and the other players are announced. Maurie is then wheeled out on the court and after Jack lifts him out of his wheelchair, he carefully bows to cheers and a standing ovation. After the game, Maurie asks Jack what he will do for a living and Jack replies that he has been hired to do an “expert commentary” for an upcoming game. Jack thanks Maurie for making his life “great” and Maurie thanks him for the last several years. On the evening of Jack’s telecast, Maurie and Rosie watch from his hospital room. Afterward Rosie gushes about how well Jack did and Maurie agrees that “no one could have done it better.” When signing off, Jack sends a personal message to Maurie, saying “Good night, pal,” but when Rosie looks over to see Maurie’s reaction, she realizes that he has died. Later that night, Oscar finds Jack mourning alone in the bleachers. Although neither are drinking men, Oscar suggests that he and Jack have a drink and “toast a winner.”