 In postwar Britain tricky Bertram Tracepurcel plans to get an Arab arms contract for his missile company then arrange for a strike so that his partner Sidney Cox gets the work at a higher price. Central to the scheme is Tracepurcel s innocent nephew whom he persuades to take a job on the shop-floor knowing he is bound to cause union problems. With shop steward Fred Kite always ready to assert workers  rights trouble is indeed assured, though not quite in the way Tracepurcell and Cox intended.