At a fashionable dinner party in Hong Kong, a Naval officer is coaxed into revealing details of a dream in which eight people take off from Bangkok, Thailand in a Dakota bound for Tokyo, Japan and crash in the Japanese mountains. Amongst those listening is Air Marshal Hardie (Sir Michael Redgrave), who is due to fly to Tokyo the next day. Hardie initially dismisses the dream because he is scheduled to fly out in a Liberator, but as Hardie arrives at the airport, he discovers that the Liberator has developed mechanical problems and has been replaced by a Dakota. When, just before the flight is due to depart, two soldiers board the plane making a complement of eight, Hardie fears that the dream may be coming true, and he is destined to die.