IN YUGOSLAVIA OF JANUARY 1942 a civil war rages; factions of royalists, communists, and fascists are either fighting or collaborating with each other. To the Allies fighting the wider World War this fractured country is an unknown cipher.
Captain Reginald Wallace of the British Merchant Navy is enjoying his rest & relaxation in Egypt after his ship was torpedoed out from under him. For ten years too focused on advancing his career - approaching thirty and unmarried - he's getting older and feeling it. He begins a torrid affair with Millicent Featherstone, the General's clerk.
But he's tapped to be a temporary SOE agent for a single short mission: very simply, he's to be dropped into occupied Yugoslavia to retrieve the HLV BELFAIR, a neutral Swedish-crewed ship stranded there, and bring it out to safety in Egypt. Millie eagerly awaits his return.
Things never do go as planned, do they? In Yugoslavia he becomes enamoured with Pavlina, a gorgeous assassin on the run from the Nazis. But Slavic commanders have ordered their female partisans to never become pregnant, or the man will be executed. Now what's a fellow to do? Well, first, get the ship out! Easier said than done when the ship is under 24 hour guard.