London, Spring 1943. A boffin with Professor Mair's Research Section, painfully self-conscious about his artificial foot, Sammy Rice clings desperately to his relationship with Susan - secretary to Mair's personnel chief Waring - as a shield against the impulse to drink to relieve the torment caused by the foot (exacerbated because he refuses to remove it even when alone with Susan). Detailed to advise Captain Stuart, an R.E. bomb disposal expert with a problem about a new and particularly deadly German booby-trap - four have been found, all have exploded, three of them killing children - Sammy can only speculate until an unexploded one is found. meanwhile, observing tests of a new anti-tank gun, Sammy agrees with Colonel Holland that it is not yet ready. But Waring, concerned only with self-aggrandisement, has persuaded Mair to urge production with the Minister; and in a meeting at which power politics are being played by the various interested groups, Sammy is cornered by Holland into confirming the Army's negative view of the gun. Mair departs back to his university, and Sammy, sounded out earlier about taking over the group with moves afoot to replace the Minister, is too filled with self-doubt to accept. Susan, hurt by his vindictive fury when she urges him to shake off his self-pity and accept his responsibilities, walks out on him. Left alone, Sammy succumbs to temptation and is roused out of a prolonged drinking bout by a call from Stuart: two unexploded booby-traps have been found in Dorset. By the time Sammy gets there, Stuart has been killed trying to tackle one of them on the basis of a clue furnished earlier by a dying gunner who had picked a booby-trap up. Adding Stuart's notes (relayed by intercom to an ATS corporal as he worked) to the gunner's information, the sweating Sammy eventually manages to dismantle the other safely. He returns to London - and Susan - with his self-confidence restored.
Who is Sammy in love with?
Susan