In a Swiss Alpine resort shortly after the War an army officer and upper-class Humpy Miller both set their sights on Mary, the landlord's daughter. When the two come down with chicken pox they are put in the charge of fellow guest Miss Cartwright, who turns out to be Humpy's old nanny. The two Englishmen unite not only against her tyranny but against a dense Greek who is also after Mary.

When the Government decide to build a Festival of Britain exhibition site, everything goes to plan, all except the fact that the main road and the pedestrian subway into the site, are blocked by a little corner shop, which is owned and run by a Mr. Lord and his family. When the Lords refuse to be bought off, and decline the compensation offered by the authorities. the police and the bailiffs try to evict them, only to come under fire from the family, who have barricaded themselves inside the shop.

In Britain, a man with a shady past uses his antiquities shop as a front for smuggled diamonds but his young shop-assistant starts blackmailing him, leading to murder and to a police investigation.

Two convicts escape from prison, complicating life for their widowed mother when they return home to hide out.