 In November 1944, Chief Boatswain's Mate Sam McHale (Richard Widmark) is aghast to learn that he is being transferred from the aircraft carrier to Argos Detachment 6, a Navy unit operating a weather station in Inner Mongolia's Gobi Desert.Capt.Gates (Willis Bouchey) explains to McHale that accurate forecasts are crucial to the Allies' success in the Pacific, and that his practical experience is required by meteorologist Commander Hobart Wyatt (Russell Collins) and his crew of "balloon chasers"