Major Lloyd Gruver (Marlon Brando), an aviation hero, is transferred from Korea to Japan. He is opposed to interracial marriages, including the marriage of his colleague Joe Kelly (Red Buttons), who decided to marry a Japanese woman. However, at Joes request, Major becomes a witness at their wedding. Lloyd does not have a relationship with Eileen Webster (Patricia Owens), the generals daughter; they have a falling out. Soon, unbeknownst to himself, he falls in love with an actress of the Matsubayashi theater named Hana-ogi (Miiko Taka). Relations and even more so marriages between Americans and Japanese are not approved by either the leadership of the American troops or Japanese society, but this does not stop many American military men, including the main characters. At the end of the film, Lloyd Gruver, to the question of journalists from the Stars and Stripes newspaper: “The command will be furious, and the Japanese too; do you have anything to say?" - replies: "Yes, tell them sayonara"