Handlung

When Fred Staples is recruited onto the board of a high-powered New York corporation, he finds his ethics and ambition at odds.

The story of the fierce and corrosive competition that exists in the executive branch of Ramsey & Co., a New York industrial colossus headed by Walter Ramsey, its cold, designing and ruthless chief. It is the saga, too, of Bill Briggs, his longtime second in command, who is swayed by human as well as technological values. And, it is the case of Fred Staples, a comparatively youthful industrial engineer brought in by Ramsey to succeed Briggs. The younger man's views and sensitivities are essentially the same as Briggs'. People are not merely units, they feel. But it is Ramsey's calculated pattern not to fire his aging aide but to create such untenable conditions that he will be forced to resign.—alfiehitchie

Fred Staples is plucked out of a conglomerate's subsidiary and put into the executive suite at the company's headquarters. He's relocated his family to New York City and at first feels out of place. He strikes a friendship with William Briggs, the Vice President to whom he nominally reports. Staples is good at his job and the company's hard-nosed president, Walter Ramsey, is pleased with his choice. Staples has a crisis of conscience when Ramsey tells him that he's been recruited to replace Briggs, someone who has devoted his entire life to the company at the expense of his family life. Briggs knows what Ramsey is up to but digs in his heels and refuses to quit. Tragedy ensues forcing Staples to act.—garykmcd

Having just moved as a plant operator in small town Mansfield, Ohio with his wife Nancy, engineer Fred Staples has just started working in industrial relations of the executive at the New York City headquarters of Ramsey and Company, the executive offices located on the top, fortieth, floor of the Ramsey Building owned by the company President/CEO, Walter Ramsey. Unknown to either man until they meet, Fred is taking over that responsibility from his sixty-two year old superior, the Senior Vice-President, Bill Briggs, who has just returned to work on Fred's first day after recovering from the latest bout of a chronic health issue, only one of a few. Briggs is the last of the original company founders, which does not even include Ramsey himself as it was originally Ramsey's father Jim Ramsey's company. From the first executive meeting that morning, the groundwork is laid for what Briggs, who was Briggs' faithful secretary Marge Fleming reassigned to Fred, and Fred slowly come to feel but which is laid in stone when Ramsey states it directly to Fred a few months down the road: that he was brought in as Briggs' replacement. While Ramsey is seen by those working for him as being ruthless in his attitude and behavior in running the company, he will not fire Briggs but wants to make it as plain as he can without saying the words that he is no longer wanted and that he should resign. Within this context, Fred has to decide how to approach the issue as egged on by Nancy in following what she believes is truly in his heart: that he really would like the position, but does not want to walk over Briggs who he likes both personally and professionally.—Huggo

Newly recruited from a small Pennsylvania industrial town, Fred Staples (Van Heflin) enters Ramsey & Co., a big New York corporation eager to get into his new job with the corporate team headed by owner Walter Ramsey (Everett Sloane). When he meets William Briggs (Ed Begley) ostensibly his senior companion he is impressed that he and the elder man share many similar views on how to improve production. But when his boss pointedly embarasses Briggs in a meeting Staples gets a bad feeling about why hes been brought into the company. When Briggs dies from a heart attack after one of Ramseys public beat downs Staples confronts the owner about his intentions and about the future of the company.