Young Alice Mason wishes to start a family, but because her own has been deemed "defective" by the state health authorities—her parents are lazy alcoholics who continue breeding, and her siblings are disabled, have mental problems or are imprisoned—she is ordered by a court to undergo sterilization so that her family's "defective genes" won't be passed on to any further. Her boyfriend Jim and a kindly priest search desperately for a way to stop the forced surgery before it's too late.