 Arthur Haley s bestselling novel brought to the screen. A midwestern U.S. hub airport struggles to remain open despite the worst snowstorm in 25 years, angry homeowners from a nearby housing tract and pilots refusing to obey noise abatement rules during the storm. Mel Bakersfield is the airport manager who must not only fight the weather and the home owners but his pilot/playboy brother-in-law, his divorce seeking wife, a deranged man with a bomb, a plane stuck in the mud and blocking the main runway, a little old lady stowaway and the airport commissioners. A very accurate, for its time, depiction of the day-to-day goings on at a busy airport-- with some extra high drama thrown in for seasoning.