Rodney Williams is a senior London County Council bureaucrat in 1953 London. He sits at his desk surrounded by piles of paperwork, and seems uninspired. A group of women, led by Mrs Smith (Lia Williams), petition the council to have a World War II bomb site redeveloped into a children’s playground. They are sent with their petition from department to department with a newer employee, Mr. Wakeling. Despite Wakeling's enthusiasm, he is stymied by an ossified and slow bureauracy at every step. The petition makes the usual circular rounds and ends back with Williams, who places it back in his pile of paperwork, making clear to his colleagues his intention to take no further action.