Summer 1939. Influential families in Nazi Germany have sent their daughters to a finishing school in an English seaside town to learn the language and be ambassadors heralding the rise of National Socialism. A teacher there sees what is coming and is trying to raise the alarm but the authorities believe he is the problem.

Archie is the brains of a society of thugs in sport coats called the Vigils. The Vigils have gained power over their fellow students and faculty by using intimidation. They meet their match in new student, Jerry Renault. Jerry refuses to participate in the school's annual fund-raising chocolate sale event. Brother Leon, the school's sadistic headmaster, makes a pact with the Vigils to sell 20,000 boxes of chocolates so he can be promoted to head of...