During World War II, eccentric young officer David Stirling is hospitalised in Cairo after a training exercise accident. Bored, he starts thinking that the accepted war methods are wrong and hits on a radical plan. He fights for permission to recruit the toughest, boldest and brightest soldiers for a small undercover unit that will create mayhem behind enemy lines. More rebels than soldiers, Stirling's team are every bit as complicated, flawed and reckless as they are astonishingly brave and heroic.