Aged General O'Leary, AE Matthews, lies wounded after trying to jump a wall mounted on his horse. On his deathbed, this kindly old Irishman makes a sequence of sharp, practical bequests that will tilt the fate of Rathbarney in unexpected directions. He bequeaths £1,000 to his faithful longtime servant Thady O'Heggarty, Barry Fitzgerald, to care for and feed his horse and dog, and another £1,000 to Doctor Michael Flynn, Robert Urquhart, for keeping him alive longer than he might have lived otherwise. In a broader gesture, all debts owed to him are cancelled, a move that immediately frees up tensions among the townsfolk. But the bulk of the estate is left to a distant relative, Jasper O'Leary, David Niven, who has never even set foot in the hamlet of Rathbarney before this windfall.
Jasper’s arrival is met with mixed emotions and sharp public suspicion. He proves to be an unscrupulous, self-interested opportunist who had once flirted with a life he thought he’d never reach—until Capri’s sudden windfall altered everything. His first moves reveal a calculating, self-serving nature, and his interest in Serena McGluskey, Yvonne De Carlo, a beautiful young widow who has just returned to Rathbarney after the death of her husband, stirs both envy and curiosity among the locals. Jasper confides his plan to Serena with a dry, unsettling practicality: “Once I squeeze the lemon dry, I’m off.”
Serena, in turn, embodies a magnetic appeal but also a wary self-awareness. She is approached by Jasper with promises and possibilities that would upend the quiet, close-knit life of the village. The matter is complicated by Doctor Flynn, who remains infatuated with Serena even though she once jilted him. He is slow to perceive that Serena’s younger sister Kathy McGlusky, Noelle Middleton, loves him in return. The triangle—Jasper’s ambition, Serena’s caution, and Kathy’s longing—unfolds against a backdrop of communal suspicion and old loyalties.
Meanwhile, the locals, led byDooley, Joseph Tomelty, gather in the village pub to plot in secret. They form a kind of reluctant, haphazard lottery to decide who among them will take it upon themselves to murder Jasper. Dooley’s assistant Terence, George Cole, is chosen but faints at the moment of truth, and the plans quickly multiply, each group acting independently and often unintentionally undermining the others. The result is a farcical swirl of near-misses, crossed purposes, and sheer bad luck, as the would-be assassins never quite coordinate their efforts—preserving Jasper’s life while destabilizing the town’s sense of security.
Even as the plots to do him harm fizzle, Dr. Flynn’s feelings for Serena are tested and redirected. Serena’s own interest in Jasper persists, and with time the two begin to see possibilities that go beyond mere money or scandal. The tension between Jasper’s greed and Serena’s growing affection becomes a subtle moral counterpoint to the farcical schemes of those conspiring around them. The film nudges toward a darker irony by juxtaposing the absurdity of the plots with genuine emotional yearnings that feel earned rather than simply played for laughs.
As the story moves toward its culmination, a late-night ruse involving the supposed ghost of one of Jasper’s ancestors sends the house into shadowy whispers and eerie theatrics. The same night, an attempt to burn down the ancestral mansion for insurance proceeds reveals how far some will go when desperation and pride collide. Yet again, the conspirators—each acting on their own—miss their marks, leaving the mansion and the living residents intact but unsettled.
Father Cormac, Fred Johnson, arrives with an unexpected authority. He has been instructed by General O'Leary to open a letter on that day that will reveal the true disposition of the estate. The letter contains a new will, designed to take effect if Jasper proves unworthy, and it leaves the entire estate to Major McGluskey, the General’s loyal neighbor and fellow landowner, as a stark rebuke to Jasper’s insinuations of rightful ownership. The revelation unsettles everyone and forces a reckoning among the various would-be heirs.
Confronted with this turning point, Jasper makes a pragmatic offer: he will depart if the others will pause their scheming. Yet the moment of resolution arrives not with a courtly concession but with a personal choice. Serena, who has stood at the center of the entire tangled web, chooses to go with Jasper, signaling a fragile, transformative shift in loyalties and ambitions. The town cannot escape the specter of the general’s will, nor the complex moral questions raised by money, love, and family loyalty.
Through wit, irony, and a gentle sense of the ridiculous that underpins its Irish setting, the story threads together a broad tapestry of characters—each with their own ambitions and vulnerabilities—while maintaining a warm, gently satirical mood. The film balances humor with a quiet insight into human motives: greed and generosity, pride and forgiveness, old grudges and new possibilities. In the end, the will reshapes the community’s dynamics, and the couple at the center of the tale contends with a future that is uncertain yet perhaps more hopeful than the mansion’s walls would allow at the outset.
> Once I squeeze the lemon dry, I’m off.
