Doctor Bamford has had enough of village life and is desperate for some distance from inquisitive Cornish neighbours. When the local estate agent shows him Tregunnt Farm # derelict and miles from anywhere # it's love at first sight. But the Bowden family from London also have their eye on the property with a view to developing the surrounding land into ugly holiday cottages. After being gazumped, the Doc decides to try and spook the family into leaving by pretending to be the Beast of Bodmin.
During the French Revolution, a mysterious English nobleman known only as The Scarlet Pimpernel (a humble wayside flower), snatches French aristos from the jaws of the guillotine, while posing as the foppish Sir Percy Blakeney in society. Percy falls for and marries the beautiful actress Marguerite St. Just, but she is involved with Chauvelin and Robespierre, and Percy's marriage to her may endanger the Pimpernel's plans to save the little Dauphin
A group of Devonport-based Royal Navy ratings, due to sail to America for a six-month NATO exercise, go out on the town on their last night in port, hitting Plymouth's notorious Union Street district, with violent results.
