A serial murderer is strangling women with a necktie. The London police have a suspect, but he is the wrong man.

Demonic gang-leader Alex goes on the spree of rape, mugging and murder with his pack of “droogs”. But he’s a boy who also likes Beethoven’s Ninth and a bit of “the old in-out, in-out”. He later finds himself at the mercy of the state and its brainwashing experiment designed to take violence off the streets.

Stanley is infatuated with Margaret, the statuesque waitress who works with him. He meets George Spiggott AKA the devil and sells his soul for 7 wishes, which Stanley uses to try and make Margaret his own first as an intellectual, then as a rock star, then as a wealthy industrialist. As each fails, he becomes more aware of how empty his life had been and how much more he has to live for.

A British Corporal in France finds himself responsible for the lives of his men when their officer is killed. He has to get them back to Britain somehow. Meanwhile, British civilians are being dragged into the war with Operation Dynamo, the scheme to get the French and British forces back from the Dunkirk beaches. Some come forward to help, others were less willing.