The Bed Sitting Room

London stands three to four years after a nuclear war that killed about 40 million people and lasted two minutes and 28 seconds, including the peace signing. Survivors wander the debris and contend with a social order that feels surreal. The word bomb is rarely spoken as people navigate this new reality.

Captain Bules Martin, who bears a Defeat of England medal, is addressed as Doctor by Lord Fortnum. Fortnum seeks a prescription for malnourishment and fears he is turning into a bed sitting room. The National Health Service offers a second opinion from a nurse overwhelmed by the war's aftermath.

Penelope lives in a tube train on the Circle Line with her parents and is said to be pregnant after a night with her fiancé Alan. They depart the train with a trunk, unknowingly carrying a living man who has been listed as dead for three years. The journey becomes a surreal scavenger mission for help.

Two policemen hover in a Morris Minor Panda car converted into a makeshift balloon. They shout keep moving at survivors to minimize the chance of becoming targets in any renewed hostilities. The scene conveys a strange, bureaucratic policing amid chaos.

Martin finds Shelter Man, a survivor living in a fallout shelter who spends his days watching old films without a projector. He recalls the horrors of the war, including the time he killed his wife and mother rather than let them seek shelter. He reveals evidence that the bombs were dipped in germs to infect the population with measles.

The National Health Service stalks Penelope's family and issues Mother a death certificate despite her being alive. They attempt to capture Mother with a net, and she slips away into Shelter Man's home, eventually transforming into a cupboard.

Lord Fortnum calls Martin and reveals his location at 29 Cul de Sac Place, where he effectively becomes a bed-sitting room. Mate, a former fireguard with nothing left to burn, tricks Martin into leaving so others can move furniture inside. A character called Mao Tse-tung (the Chinaman) moves Mother into the room.

Martin asks to court Penelope, while her father is calculating his own path toward power. Penelope remains uninterested in the arranged date, but a plan for marriage proceeds. The wedding takes place at St Pauls Cathedral, which is mostly submerged, performed by an underwater vicar.

Penelope goes into labor during the wedding chaos and delivers a baby. When she shows the infant to her father, he is revealed to be transformed into a parrot, highlighting the bizarre state of the world.

Father kills himself and his body is cooked by starvation. As radiation threats rise, people retreat into the bed-sitting room. Penelope and Alan find their baby dead; Rubber Man repents as the police knock down the room, while Fortnum impersonates God only to be stopped by Martin.

The police bring back the chest containing Nigel, reuniting Martin with the man inside. Penelope is pregnant again, carrying a normal and healthy child, suggesting a fragile thread of continuity amid chaos.

An inspector delivers a speech offering hope for the country's future. Surgeons have developed a cure for the mutations through full-body transplantation. The film ends with a military band paying homage to Mrs. Ethel Shroake, a former royal charwoman, symbolizing a fragile sense of continuity.