Will the army ever make a keen, alert disciplined soldier out of the disaster that is Grubb?
It is 1952. Conscript soldier Grubb is the despair of the British army.
Brought up by inadequate parents, taken into Council Care and then sent underground to work in the coal mines, Grubb is a hopeless case but the army does its best to make him into an alert disciplined soldier.
When they realise they are wasting their time they find a niche for him stoking the boilers in the Nursing Corps depot where, along with a collection of similar military misfits, he can quietly serve out his time doing a menial job suited to his limited intelligence.
Veteran Sergeant Merry is seconded to this female unit to turn Grubb and his pals into soldiers. Merry knows a forlorn hope when he sees one, but orders is orders.
In spite of efforts to keep him hidden and out of harm’s away Grubb innocently manages to embarrass the military establishment over and over again.
Grubb gradually earns the respect and admiration of everyone , from his fellow conscripts, to the war-hero Colonel who entrusts the care of her oversexed dog Monty to him, even to the Secretary of State for War.
And then he meets Polly, the pig-swill collector’s daughter …