When rich and 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 Holbeton, and, most of all, Mrs Chavender"s own one-time fiance, "Ham King" J. B. Duff, whose rotten product spoils her breakfast.