Two rogue Texas oil men, "Big John" McMasters (Clark Gable) and "Square John" Sand (Spencer Tracy), drill oil wells in fields where there is no known oil. These wildcatters team up with a local drilling equipment owner, Luther Aldrich (Frank Morgan), and strike it rich -- but the ups and downs of the oil business, the whims of South American politics, and the love of Elizabeth "Betsy" Bartlett (Claudette Colbert) threaten to tear the two friends apart.