When rich & imperious American widow Beatrice Chavender eats a forkful of inferior ham at her sister's country house near London it affects the lives of everyone around her
- her sister her brother-in-law her sister's butler her sister's poor relation Sally Sally's fiance Lord Holberton & most of all Mrs Chavender's own one-time fiance ' Ham King' J. B. Duff whose rotten product spoils her breakfast.