Years after her aunt was murdered in her home, a young woman moves back into the house with her new husband. However, he has a secret that he will do anything to protect, even if means driving his wife insane.
Political maneouvring ensues when a scientist discovers a device that can harness the sun's power, turning it into a solar-powered weapon more powerful than the H-bomb.
Two RAF pilots, shot down during the war, are captured by an eccentric German and imprisoned in his cellar - for years, because he neglects to tell them when the war is over.
A wife's loss of her topaz engagement ring leads to marital disharmony, disastrous interventions from an insurance agent, crises among the servants, and setbacks to the husband's career.
A new nuclear bomb is being developed which will explode but supposedly will produce no fall out afterwards, military chiefs are keen on the possibilities but the local town's residents close to the base are not.
Police have a suspect in the search for a man whom a young girl, Avril Poynter, alleges assaulted her. Lionel Bellows agrees to assist them by filling out the suspect's identity parade, with surprising consequences.
Ivanov, a young estate owner, is too intelligent and too bored to endure his provincial life. He is a "superfluous man," attracted to a beautiful young woman who threatens his moral foundations and leads him ultimately to tragedy.
It is Sicily in 1943 and an explosive situation develops when the smug, meticulous Captain Vining arrives to take over a war weary anti-tank battery. Can the return of Major Tanner save the situation?