The film follows Jack Hopkins, an aircraft designer with a passion for traction engines. His boss is eager to sell a new supersonic jet plane that Jack has designed to American millionaire Paul Fisher. The first encounter between Fisher and Jack goes badly, and tensions only heighten after Fisher's daughter Kathy damages Jack's prize traction engine "The Iron Maiden", rendering it impossible to drive solo. Jack is desperate to enter the annual Woburn Abbey steam rally with the machine, but his fireman is injured and unable to participate. When all seems lost the millionaire himself is won over by Jack's plight and joins him in driving the engine; the two soon become firm friends.
Michael Craig
as Jack Hopkins
Anne Helm
as Kathy Fisher
Jeff Donnell
as Miriam Fisher
Alan Hale Jr.
as Paul Fisher
Noel Purcell
as Admiral Sir Digby Trevelyan
Cecil Parker
as Sir Giles Thompson
Roland Culver
as Lord Upshott
Joan Sims
as Nellie Trotter
John Standing
as Humphrey Gore-Brown
Brian Oulton
as Vicar
Sam Kydd
as Fred Trotter
Judith Furse
as Mrs. Webb
