Captain James Holland is the pilot on a routine flight from Frankfurt to New York, packed with people eager to be home for Christmas. When a passenger collapses from what appears to be a heart attack. Hollalnd is forced to request a emergency landing at London's Heathrow Airport. But to his great surprise, the air traffic controllers will not let him land in England--they tell Hollland that his sick passenger has contracted a dangerous new form of influenza and that the plane must return to Germany.