It stars Laurence Olivier as a Soviet Russian inventor who travels to England to have his revolutionary propeller manufactured, and Penelope Dudley-Ward as the woman who falls in love with him.

The film was shot at Denham Studios with sets designed by the art director Carmen Dillon.

The film's title is a reference to John of Gaunt's famous speech in Richard II which begins: Ivan Kouznetsoff (Laurence Olivier), a Russian inventor, travels to England to introduce the British shipping industry to his newly invented and improved propeller blade.

Meeting Anne and hearing her views turn his own previous conceptions about the capitalist system and its degenerates upside down.

After a lovers' quarrel, Ivan heads back to Russian only to be recalled to England a year later to smooth out imperfections in his design.