It tells of a father and son who conspire to thwart a local businessman's plans to buy their land by poaching his game pheasants.

[5] In 1955, in the English Countryside, impoverished widower William Smith lives with his nine-year-old son Danny in an old vardo behind the garage and filling station they operate together.

Wealthy local profiteer Victor Hazell, who has bought all of the surrounding land, tries to convince the Smiths to sell as well, but William refuses to budge.

Danny fixes a child welfare officer's rattling old car when she arrives, and she agrees to see to it that no more inspectors bother the Smiths.

William has been repairing an old Austin 7, so Danny sets out in the car to find his father, narrowly avoiding a police cruiser in the process.

After they leave to fetch Hazell, Danny discovers the trapped poacher is William, helps him out of the pit, and drives him back home to have his broken ankle treated by Doc Spencer.

The Smiths stay up late to crush the pills and stuff the raisins with the powder, causing Danny to fall asleep in school the next day.

It turns out that, without William's centrally-located property, Hazell couldn't go ahead with a secret plan to build a newer and bigger town, "Hazellton", practically on top of the village itself.

[6][7] Some viewers were pleased in particular by the film's positively-updated view on the subject of corporal punishment in schools, which Dahl was an outspoken opponent of, particularly because he himself had suffered permanent injuries to his buttocks.