Peter Cushing is scientist Professor Sewell - he and his team of researchers have at least found the cure for some of the world's most virulent diseases - the deadly bubonic and typhus plagues and are ready to publish their potentially world changing results. However invoking the Official Secrets Act the shadowy men in Authority throw a bureaucratic cloak of secrecy over the findings, claiming that in the wrong hands the information could be used in 'germ warfare'.

Suddenly security men stalk the shadows and the scientists need passes to enter their own laboratories. Conflict rages as the research team want their discovery to benefit mankind while the Authority means to prevent it's coming a weapon of war but there is no alternative to silence. When one of the team decides to take matters into their own hands there ensues a dramatic battle for power that will leave none of them unscathed...