Around the turn of the century, in England, alcoholic Uncle Willie is the bane of his family, of which his brother-in-law is the family spokesman. It is decided to let Uncle Willie buy a bicycle shop in order to impress Virginia van Stuyden, an American heiress in love with Frank. This pleases Uncle Willie's young nephew, Charles. Complications arise when stuffy lord, Sir George Probus, at whose home Virginia is staying, becomes shocked when she attends a carnival.
The episodic story of a composer of operettas, Rudi Kleiber, in in old Viennese days, and the two women in his life; Maria Zeitler, his sweetheart, later mistress, lost love, an operetta star, and his first patron, and the mother of a son he did not know he had; and of Greta, his first love and companion in later years
Jonathan Dakers' early ambition was to become a great surgeon and to marry Edie Martyn. But, on the death of his father, he is obliged to start work as a partner in a poor general practice in the Black Country. Edie falls in love with Jonathan's brother, Harold, who is killed in the Great War, and Jonathan marries her as planned. It is only afterwards that he realises he now loves another.
With the ending of the Spanish Civil War, a dispirited band of volunteers from the International Brigades seeks refuge in France. But on reaching the frontier, the band is disarmed, and all are detained as political prisoners. Then come instructions from Vichy that all fit prisoners are to be sent to Morocco to work on the Sahara railway for the Germans. However, one man manages to escape to London with vital information for the Allies.
At a reception given by Arthur Hilton at his Sussex home the conversation turns to the subject of danger, with Hilton recalling a case in which he was involved as a Natal police commissioner. In it there were three guilty persons, but only one of them was hanged; the other two were sentenced to long terms, vowing vengeance on Hilton. Unknown to him, the same two men are now among his guests, and are determined to have their revenge.
In the Sahara a British Riff chief weds a captured girl to save her from the tribe.
The murderer “Boss” Huller – after having spent ten years in prison – breaks his silence to tell the warden his story.