After a period of mass unemployment, chaos and a complete failure of the government, order has been restored in the United Kingdom. However the price of this new stability is personal liberty. Dissenters soon appear, dedicated to the overthrow of the new regime.

A delicate situation develops when the French President, due in London for talks refuses to attend. He demands to meet the real head of state. With the Queen in self-imposed exile and the Prime Minister little more than a pawn of the General, who is the real head of state?