POW Stephen Brooks (Oliver Reed) is assigned to work in a Munich zoo, where he becomes the keeper of Lucy the elephant. After a heavy bombing raid, it is decided by the Zoo’s director to transfer Lucy to a safer location in Innsbrook. The journey must be done on foot, so Brooks is accompanied by two German soldiers and a female cook. Brooks however has other plans. He intends to follow in the footsteps of the Carthaginian general Hannibal and lead Lucy over the Alps, to Switzerland. Along the way, Brooks frequently runs into an American saboteur named Packy (Michael J Pollard) with his team of misfits and often ends up involved in the war he’s trying to escape.