It's the off-season at the lonely Beauregard Hotel in Bournemoth, and only the long-term tenants are still in residence. Life is stirred up, however, when the beautiful Ann Shankland arrives to see her alcoholic ex-husband, John Malcolm, who is secretly engaged to Pat Cooper, the woman who runs the hotel. Meanwhile, snobbish Mrs Railton-Bell discovers that the kindly if rather doddering Major Pollock, played by David Niven, who won an Oscar for his performance, a retired officer who likes to find out more...

The greatest prisoner of war adventure of them all. Behind the barbed wire fences of Stalag Luft the Allies plan a mass break-out by digging three tunnels. Discovery by the Germans when only one is completed means the chances of escape are thin. Yet 76 make the attempt in this epic adventure.