Jock Sinclair is a whiskey-drinking, by-the-bootstraps commanding officer of a peacetime Scottish battalion. Sinclair is a lifetime military man. He expects loyalty and respect from his men. But when Basil Barrow, an educated, by-the-book scion from a traditional military family enters the scene as Sinclair's replacement, the two men become locked in a fierce battle for control of the battalion and the hearts and minds of its men.