Junior doctor Simon Sparrow (Dirk Bogarde) gains a position at St Swithin's Hospital in London and ends up sharing 'digs' with a bunch of slightly older young medics, all of whom have failed the previous year on account of their inability to keep to the curriculum. Sparrow tries to find a balance between the antics of his new peers and the ever-terrifying Sir Lancelot Spratt, chief surgeon at St Swithin's and a man on the lookout for miscreant doctors wherever they may be. Menaced by the advances of his landlady's daughter, and feelings for one of the nurses, will Sparrow be able to qualify?