It was directed by Jean Negulesco, written and produced by Nunnally Johnson and based on the 1949 novel of the same name by American artillery sergeant and San Francisco newspaperman Theodore Bonnet (1908–1983).

He manages to sneak in, and is first spotted by a sympathetic maid, Kate Noonan, but before she can safely see him out, he is forced to hide in the dining room when the Queen enters.

Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli has been unsuccessful in persuading the widowed Victoria to end her seclusion following the death of her husband 15 years before.

Disraeli sees an opportunity to change her mind and pleads for Wheeler and those like him in Parliament, delivering a speech that indirectly criticizes the Queen for withdrawing from public life.

She refuses to become more accessible to her subjects, despite Brown's urging, but when Wheeler shows up once more, she is genuinely moved upon meeting the boy for the first time, and once again enters public life.

In a subplot, Lady Emily Prior and Lieutenant Charles McHatten, a Guards officer, are in love, but the Queen is opposed to the relationship because of McHattan's social position.

At the Westminster Sessions on 28 December, the magistrate's court jury found him not guilty of theft and he was taken back by his employer, who described him as an extremely good lad.

It also includes the beginnings of enlightened social reform through parliamentary action, and the further extension of British world influence and of Britain's imperial power in India.