September, 1939. The invading Germans blaze a trail of destruction across Poland
. France and Britain declare war, but do nothing to help.
And a Polish resist
ance movement takes shape under the shadow of occupation, enlisting those willin
g to risk death in the struggle for their nation's survival. Among them is Capta
in Alexander de Milja, an officer in the Polish military intelligence service, a
cartographer who now must learn a dangerous new role: spymaster in the anti-Naz
i underground. Beginning with a daring operation to smuggle the Polish National
Gold Reserve to the government in exile, he slips into the shadowy and treachero
us front lines of espionage; he moves through Europe, changing identities and st
aying one step ahead of capture.
In Warsaw, he engineers a subversive campaig
n to strengthen the people's will to resist. In Paris, he poses as a Russian poe
t, then as a Slovakian coal merchant, drinking champagne in black-market bistros
with Nazis while uncovering information about German battle plans. And a love a
ffair with a woman of the French Resistance leads him to make the greatest decis
ion of his life.
