In Singapore in 1950, a crop of young British soldiers are trained in the arts of love and war in this darkly comic examination of the perils, tedium and confusion that dominate the day today life in the ranks. Phillipa (Lynn Redgrave, Georgy Girl, the National Health), the daughter of British Sergeant Major Raskin, is the singular object for the sexual speculations of the raw recruits known as the virgin soldiers. Although Phillipa responds to Private Brigg's (Hywel Bennett, the Buttercup Chain, the Family Way) overtures at a military dance, he is too drunk to consummate the act. When the more mature Sgt. Driscoll (Nigel Davenport, Chariots of Fire) also expresses an interest, he learns that, just like the boys he's training, Phillipa is a reluctant virgin.