Plot

After World War II, a Highland Regiment's acting Commanding Officer, who rose from the ranks, is replaced by a peace-time Oxford-educated Commanding Officer, leading to a dramatic conflict between the two.

Major Jock Sinclair has been in this Highland regiment since he joined as a boy piper. During World War II, as Second-in-Command, he was made acting Commanding Officer. Now the regiment has returned to Scotland, and a new commanding officer is to be appointed. Jock's own cleverness is pitted against his new C.O., his daughter, his girlfriend, and the other officers in the Mess.—Aryk Nusbacher <nusbacher-a@rmc.ca>

This is the story of a conflict between two senior officers in the cloistered environment of a Scottish military regiment. Major Jock Sinclair has been the acting Colonel of the Regiment for a lengthy period of time. He is admired and respected by officers and men alike and there is a general assumption that he will be made their Commanding Officer. To everyone's surprise, they learn that Lieutenant Colonel Basil Barrow has been named to the post. Although a member of the Regiment, Barrow left as a young subaltern, made his career in staff functions, and is basically unknown. Barrow is a strict disciplinarian compared to Sinclair's easygoing approach, and as he tries to impose his own style of leadership on his command, he struggles to gain the loyalty of his officers, particularly that of Sinclair, who bristles at being a second-in-command with little to do. A final confrontation between the two men leads to tragedy for both of them.—garykmcd

It's peace-time after the end of WWII. Major Jock Sinclair has been the Acting Colonel of his Scottish highland battalion ever since circumstance placed him in the position near the end of the war. A man's man, he rose through the ranks starting as a piper to reach his current position. He is generally well-liked by the men in the battalion in that he works hard, and plays equally hard, often with the other officers albeit on his terms, as a respite from duties. Although he will remain with the battalion, Sinclair doesn't much like that he is imminently being replaced by Lt. Col. Basil Barrow, who is also a military lifer, but who rose to his rank through academia. Despite both having the good of the battalion and its men at heart, Sinclair and Barrow end up being like oil and water, Barrow somewhat old school in believing in regiment, including keeping to official rules, and that officers should always act like gentlemen, somewhat the antithesis of Sinclair. As such, Sinclair does whatever he can overtly but still slyly to undermine Barrow's leadership. With the battle lines drawn between the two men, each individual officer falls in somewhere along the continuum between the two. What happens not only with the two men but by association within the battalion is affected by an incident Sinclair has with Cpl. Ian Fraser, regarded as the best piper in the battalion but who Sinclair is unaware, based on her directive to Fraser not to say anything, is courting Sinclair's pretty daughter, Morag Sinclair, in combination with Barrow's own wartime experience where he was tortured as a POW.—Huggo

Major Jock Sinclair is the Acting Colonel of his regiment in the aftermath of World War II. Expecting to be posted as the permanent C.O., he is disillusioned to learn that another officer (one who, unlike himself, did not rise from the ranks). Jock Sinclair begins a social and psychological campaign against the new Colonel, with tragic results for both.—Mike Campanelli <mjc@rubinbaum.com>