Summary

The Prologue begins with a vivid description of the crowds of refugees leaving France in a desperate attempt to escape the Nazis, their efforts made even more dangerous by the heat wave of that summer of 1940. There is also a description of a vehicle moving against the tide of fleeing people, a vehicle driven by Virginia Hall, a woman whom narration describes as being a vitally important, powerful, and mysterious figure in the history of covert Allied resistance against the Nazis.

Author Sonia Purnell describes the years-long difficulties she encountered while trying to excavate truths about Virginia and her anti-war efforts. “The fact that a young woman who had lost her leg in tragic circumstances broke through the tightest constrictions and overcame prejudice and even hostility to help the Allies win the Second World War is astonishing,” she says. “That a...