Queen Elizabeth I (Dame Flora Robson) is running this show. The men in her court should be thinking about how to add to the glory of the Elizabethan Age and how to foil those pesky Spanish who have far too much influence in England when her older sister Mary was on the throne, after their father Henry VIII was succeeded by their sickly half-brother. Elizabeth thinks Michael Ingolby (Sir Laurence Olivier) can do great things. Michael is mostly thinking about one of Elizabeth's ladies in waiting, Cynthia (Vivien Leigh). Soon his mind is on survival when Elizabeth sends him on a voyage to Spain.