Dick Coward is an ordinary chap who keeps finding himself in extraordinary circumstances. Caught up in World War II's major events, he flies Spitfires in the Battle of Britain, acts as a military advisor at Stalingrad, from whence to D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge and the crossing of the Rhine. But to Coward there are worse things than war, not least the possibility of the family estate ending up in the hands of his ghastly, undeserving brother, James. Only by amassing military glory to satisfy his father can Coward guarantee that justice prevails.