Able-bodied seaman Albert Tufnell (John Meillon) plans to marry Shirley Hornett (Vera Day), and the ceremony is about to take place -- when a telegram arrives from an officer aboard his ship, advising that marriage is impossible for Tufnell at that moment. Shirley's battle-ax of a mother (Marjorie Rhodes) doesn't know the facts behind the telegram but assumes the worst, and won't even discuss what to do about the wedding, even as she tries to live down the humiliation of a ceremony stopped midway through. Albert and his best friend, Carnoustie Bligh (Graham Stark), try to sort it all out, but even the arrival of an officer from their ship (Dennis Price) with an explanation only makes matters more complicated.