Sent back to the UK in disgrace at the end of the first novel, Guy Crouchback — heir of a declining aristocratic English Roman Catholic family—manages to find a place in a fledgling commando brigade, training on a Scottish island under an old friend, Tommy Blackhouse. Tommy is also the man for whom Guy's wife Virginia left him. Another trainee is Ivor Claire, whom Guy regards as the flower of English chivalry. He (Guy) learns to exploit the niceties of military ways of doing things with the assistance of Colonel "Jumbo" Trotter, an elderly Halberdier who knows all the strings to pull.