Redford plays Waldo Pepper, a biplane pilot who misses the adventures he had flying in WWI. Pepper and a friend start up a business of taking people on rides and entertaining people with stunts such as walking on the wing of the plane. The pair eventually got into trouble for excessive stunts and the death of a young woman so they went to Hollywood to be stunt men.  Pepper finally gets the opportunity, through his films, to depict the bravery of the dogfighters in the Great War.