During World War II Colonel Masters (Michael Caine) is sent to North Africa to lead a small group of mercenaries into the desert to dispose of a vital enemy fuel dump. However, there is friction between the colonel, his second in command Captain Masters (Nigel Davenport), and Cyril Leech, the head of the hired mercenaries. Things go from bad to worse when they find out that their mission is a booby-trapped suicide mission, which threatens to end in pointless bloodshed.