Haskell (Michael Caine) is assigned a job by his boss, the aristocratic Landon-Higgins (James Fox), to hijack a high security van in broad daylight while it's in the shadow run (out of radio contact with the main security firm). He assembles a team to carry out the heist, but things don't go according to plan and Haskell begins to think his boss might be double-crossing him. Add to this a teenage boarding school pupil having already witnessed some of the meetings of the team and Haskell's in real trouble.