A novelist discovers British intelligence has faked his death so he can carry out a mission on their behalf. Assisted by a female agent and a professional assassin, he is sent to Switzerland to identify and eliminate a German spy. Alfred Hitchcock's First World War espionage thriller, starring John Gielgud, Peter Lorre and Madeleine Carroll.

During World War I, a novelist declared dead is recruited by British intelligence and sent to Switzerland under a new identity to assassinate a German spy. Teamed with a fellow agent posing as his wife and an eccentric assassin known as “the General,” the trio close in on their target — until two of them grow ambivalent when their duty to the mission clashes with their consciences.