Bogus Colonel Anthony Carleton, known to his wife and
children as "Sahib" because he pretends to have served in India,
heads a clan of high class con artists working on the French
Riviera. While he cheats at cards, Marmy, his wife, helps
their children, Richard and George-Anne, promote profitable
marriages.
After Sahib wins a large amount of money from
Richard's prospective future father-in-law, Jennings, the Monte
Carlo police expose Sahib and the now destitute family is is forced
to take the boat train to London using tickets provided by the
police. Although George-Anne is in love with her suitor,
Duncan Macrea, she will not marry him because he is not rich enough,
even when he tells her that he does not care what her past has been.
On the train, George-Anne meets Miss Ellen Fortune, a
kind but lonely spinster who, in her old age, inherited a lot of
money from a man who was once her fiancée.
Miss Ellen invites them into her first class compartment, buys them
dinner, and then, after they care for her during a train wreck, she
asks them to stay with her in London. Because they are
desperate, they decide to stay and, to convince her suspicious
lawyer, Felix Ansthruther, that they are not what they actually are,
go to work.
Richard is hired as a mail clerk in an engineering
firm and Sahib becomes a salesman for the Flying Wombat motor car.
Soon Miss Ellen's sweet nature begins to change all of them.
Richard and Sahib are successful at their jobs and George-Anne
begins to feel guilty about their plan, certain that the others are
still only after the money. When Miss Ellen collapses on her
birthday and they learn that she has changed her will in their
favor, they not only do not care about the money any longer, but
offer to support her themselves when Mr. Anstruther says that her
fortune has eroded to nothing.
Finally changed, Richard marries Leslie Saunders, his
boss, George-Anne marries Duncan, Sahib becomes the London sales
manager for the Flying Wombat, and Ellen comes to live with them in
a country cottage.