When his corporate employers grow tired of his effective but exuberant tactics in the dour post-depression age, New York marketing man Daniel Armstrong is put on enforced holiday leave and decides to pay a visit to England.

Once there he gets in touch with some long-lost relatives, minor members of the aristocracy, and is invited to their country home. It is not long before he discovers that, despite appearances, this well-to-do English branch of his family are in fact almost penniless and relying on a loveless marriage arrangement. The union, it is hoped, will secure the investment required to utilise a mining concession they hold in Rhodesia, and revive the family's their fortunes.

Hoping to save his distant cousin - and perhaps, eventually, win her for himself - Armstrong concocts an ingenious plan to turn around the family's situation, and all within a month. Pulling out every trick he knows, the stage is set for the world to be introduced to the wonders of Magnelite.