A hard-drinking beachcomber languishing on a small South Sea island is dragooned by the Australian Navy into looking out for Japanese spy-planes during the Second World War. When his path crosses with a teacher and her schoolgirl pupils marooned on a nearby shore, he pilots them to the safety of his own home. Predictably, the prim schoolmistress and her drunkard host make for poor company. Comedy, with Cary Grant, Leslie Caron and Trevor Howard.

During World War II, South Sea beachcomber Walter Eckland is persuaded to spy on planes passing over his island. He gets more than he bargained for as schoolteacher Catherine Frenau arrives on the run from the Japanese with her pupils in tow!