The evil Dr. Crow, head of the subversive organization the Society for the Total Extinction of Non-Conforming Humans or STENCH, has let the British Secret Service know that he was the one who masterminded the theft of the top secret formula for hydroformulin developed for the War Department by Dr. Stark, who was killed in the process. Dr. Crow has also let them know that the formula, stolen by one of his agents named Milchmann (translated as Milkman), will imminently deliver the formula to him. British Secret Service has to retrieve the formula, and the Chief is dismayed to learn the only agent available for the job is bumbling Simkins (code name Red Admiral). As such, Chief assigns a team of trainees, Harold Crump (code name Blue Bottle), Daphne Honeybutt (code name Brown Cow), and Charlie Bind (code name Yellow Peril) not so much to work under Simkins but to ensure he doesn't cause any problems. The real problem ends up being that the four as a collective, largely in their inexperience, are as inept as Simkins, with the one exception of Honeybutt's inherent skill of a photographic memory. That problem is only exacerbated by Crump falling in love with Honeybutt, he doing whatever to protect her over all else. They are dispatched to Vienna upon news from the Service's man there, Carstairs, that Milchmann has just arrived in town. The foursome get into one scrape after another in their ineptitude, much to the chagrin of Carstairs who arguably could have retrieved the formula on his own if it wasn't for the four.—Huggo