Corporal John Bramble is the sole survivor of a British tank crew after a major battle with Erwin Rommel's victorious Afrika Korps. Delirious, he stumbles across the North African desert into the Empress of Britain, a small, isolated hotel owned by Farid. The staff consists of just Frenchwoman Mouche, as the cook has fled and the waiter Davos was killed the night before by German bombing.