The film traces General Douglas MacArthur's career from 1942, when he leaves Corregidor pledging "I shall return", through his victories in the Pacific, his deft handling of the democratization of Japan during the postwar occupation, his Presidential ambitions, and return to war in Korea where his insubordination led to his dismissal by President Truman in 1951.

Immediately after Emperor Hirohito's World War II surrender, General MacArthur suddenly finds himself the de facto ruler of a foreign nation. He challenges his expert on Japanese culture, General Fellers to provide evidence in ten short days to decide if the Japanese Emperor, worshipped as a god by his people but accused of war crimes, should be punished or saved, as the fate of a nation waits.