During Japan's invasion of the Philippines in 1942, Capt. Henry Lassiter (Lee Bowman), Sgt. Bill Dane (Robert Taylor) and a diverse group of American soldiers are ordered to destroy and hold a strategic bridge in order to delay the Japanese forces and allow Gen. MacArthur time to secure Bataan. When the Japanese soldiers begin to rebuild the bridge and advance, the group struggles with not only hunger, sickness and gunfire, but also the knowledge that there is likely no relief on the way.