Martin Arrowsmith grows up in a small Midwestern town where he wants to become a doctor. At medical school he meets an abrasive but brilliant professor, Gottlieb, who becomes his mentor. He decides to work in a research laboratory.

From there Arrowsmith begins a career that hits all of the ethical quandaries that scientists and those in the medical profession encounter. Arrowsmith struggles with these dilemmas. Despite his interest in helping humanity, he has little interest in people and this makes the path of his career an even harder one to walk. He’s surrounded on all sides by icons of nobility, icons of pride, and icons of rapaciousness, each one distracting him from his calling.