Soon after medical student Simon Sparrow (Dirk Bogarde) arrives at St. Swithin's Hospital to begin his training, he's engulfed in a high-stakes world that includes sports cars, cocktails and women. With all these distractions, it's difficult to keep his eye on his books -- and that's where strict chief surgeon Sir Lancelot Spratt (James Robertson Justice) comes in. Ralph Thomas directs this farcical comedy, based on a novel by Richard Gordon.