Then Hitchcock turns his blithe gamesmanship against itself, as Ashenden gets enmeshed in a jarring crisis of conscience as well as a tortured romance with his manufactured missus.
Hitchcock and his scenarists (Charles Bennett, Alma Reville, Ian Hay, and Jesse Lasky, Jr.) scatter clues like gum wrappers as Ashenden and the General visit Switzerland to find an enemy agent whose skulduggery affects negotiations under way in Palestine.