Gen. Savage is shot down over the North Sea between England and Nazi-occupied Norway. He manages to make it to a life raft only to find he's sharing it with a downed German fighter pilot, Col Dieter. Savage has an emergency radio and Dieter is wounded, but he has the only gun in the raft, the current is pushing them toward Norway, and Allied search-and-rescue operations are seriously hampered by foul weather. For a few long hours, the war is reduced to its most basic equation, man versus man.

While working on a plan to bomb Strassbourg, Savage gets trapped in a cellar/shelter during a London air raid. A delayed-action bomb blocks the sole exit. Trapped with him are Lady Constance, Dr. Lewis Glenway, Miner Bert Higgs, and a pregnant woman, Eleanor Nicholls. We learn more about each of the people as they try to free themselves. Dr. Glenway turns out to be Archie Lewis, a lower-class con man who redeems himself. After they are freed, Lady Constance decides to open her home, Penrose Hall, as a home for young women like Eleanor.