Sammy Rice (David Farrar (actor)) is a British scientist working with a specialist "Boffin in London during the World War II. Rice is embittered because he feels military scientific research is being incompetently managed. He is also enduring unremitting pain from his artificial foot. The painkillers he has been prescribed are ineffective, and his use of alcohol as an analgesic has led to his alcoholism. His girlfriend Susan (Kathleen Byron) puts up with his self-pitying, self-destructive behavior as long as she can, but finally breaks up with him, telling him that he lacks the ambition to better himself.