Stephen "Hannibal" Brooks is a British prisoner of war Lance corporal who is put to work in Munich zoo, looking after an Asian elephant called Lucy. When the zoo is bombed by the Americans, the zoo's director decides it is unsafe for the elephant to remain there. So he sends Brooks along with hostile German soldier Kurt, a friendly German soldier named Willy, and Vronia, a female cook to accompany the elephant to Innsbruck Zoo via a train.