On the day after the General Election, Jim Hacker MP receives the anxiously awaited call from No. 10 Downing Street with his new ministerial appointment. Jim has revolutionary plans for Open Government.

The Minister has a plan to turn an official visit by the President of Buranda to party political advantage. The Permanent Secretary dislikes the plan, especially when it precipitates an unforeseen crisis.

Pruning the Civil Service is a great political platform for the Minister but the idea is deeply upsetting to Sir Humphrey Appleby. Perhaps he can find a way to make the Minister abandon the policy.

Jim Hacker wants to protect people's right to privacy. He meets with stiff resistance from Sir Humphrey and learns that secrecy is as sacred an observance for civil servants as silence is for Trappist monks.

While battling one another on the Civil Service reduction issue, the Minister and Sir Humphrey learn of a plan that would adversely affect them both. They must now work together for the first time.

Are there occasions when a Minister should be kept in the dark? The question takes on new meaning when the Minister's daughter joins a group protesting his plans for administration of the countryside.