On February 13, 1941, in Nazi-occupied Paris, Lazare Aron joins his parents, Gervais and Magda, for breakfast, consumed by guilt over secretly posting Resistance propaganda in violation of curfew. He lost his thumb and forefinger at age eight in a printing press accident, which led to his rejection from the French army. Now working as a janitor at Gare du Nord, he witnesses food being shipped from France to Germany.

Lazare urges his parents to flee to Vichy France, the unoccupied zone of France, but they refuse, believing their French citizenship and Gervais’s Great War service will protect them. Walking to work together, they witness a Waffen-SS officer shoot an elderly man dead for looking at one of Lazare’s propaganda signs. When Lazare runs over, he finds a crumpled paper with his handwriting near the blood. Overcome with guilt, he whispers an apology.

On February 17, 1941, Rose’s parents are buried at Manor Park Cemetery, attended by the Bethnal Green community and her coworkers. She learns from neighbors that her parents sometimes skipped the Tube shelter to spare Emilienne’s back, and Herbert always stayed with her. As the caskets are lowered beside Charlie’s headstone, Rose is consumed with regret. Lucy expresses guilt over her plans that night, but Rose insists the blame lies solely with Hitler.

The following day, Rose returns to work and receives a typed condolence letter dictated by Churchill. Moved, she vows to do everything possible to fight Hitler and honor her family’s memory. When the air raid siren sounds, Rose returns to typing, her fear replaced by determination to honor her family.

On February 27, 1941, Lazare returns home still consumed by guilt over the old man’s death. He confesses to his parents that he took their supplies to make Resistance propaganda and that the old man was reading the sign when the officer approached and killed him. Gervais insists a Nazi killed the man, not Lazare, but forbids further poster distribution. Lazare again urges his parents to flee before antisemitism worsens. Magda makes him promise to stop posting propaganda. He agrees, having no plans for more posters, but conceals his intention to take far more dangerous action against the Nazis.

On January 5, 1942, Rose finishes a night shift. The Blitz has ceased, Germany has invaded the Soviet Union, and the United States has entered the war, though Rose’s heartache remains raw.

When Miss Goswick asks if anyone speaks fluent French, Rose volunteers and is escorted to interpret a meeting between Churchill, General Charles de Gaulle, and Commandant Martel. She interprets a tense debate about de Gaulle’s unauthorized Christmas Eve seizure of Vichy-controlled islands near Canada. After de Gaulle compares himself to Joan of Arc, Churchill retorts that the English “burned the last one,” referring to Joan of Arc’s execution (32). Martel mistakes Rose for French, and Churchill dismisses her.

Later, Churchill telephones Hugh Dalton, minister of Economic Warfare, saying he has someone their recruiters should meet.

On January 13, 1942, Rose is summoned to an interview with Captain Selwyn Jepson at 64 Baker Street. Jepson refuses to reveal the position but asks increasingly personal questions covering her childhood in France, her knowledge of Paris, and her fears. He asks if she could kill a Nazi. Thinking of her family, Rose answers yes. Jepson explains he is assessing whether he can risk her life and whether she has the fortitude to risk it. After a morning-long interview, he says he will be in touch.

On February 21, 1942, Lazare sneaks out to conduct sabotage, having escalated from slashing tires to homemade petrol bombs. He targets German cars parked outside a Montparnasse apartment. When he throws his first bomb, a Nazi sleeping in another car wakes and opens fire. Lazare flees, and a mustached man in a beret leads him through sewers into the Paris catacombs. There, several men interrogate him. Despite concerns about his maimed hand, he demonstrates he can operate a rifle left-handed, and they vote to accept him. The man, Claudius, opens a British-supplied container filled with explosives, weapons, and food, and gives Lazare a pistol and food.

At dawn, Lazare returns home to find his parents waiting. He confesses he intends to fight. Gervais confesses his guilt over Lazare’s accident, realizing it likely saved his life since all his friends who enlisted are now dead or captured. Lazare gives his parents the food, lying that he has already eaten.

On May 29, 1942, Lazare comes home to find his mother sewing a yellow star patch, now required by German decree, onto his father’s coat. Lazare refuses to wear the star and presents his parents with fake identification and travel papers obtained through the Resistance, urging them to flee to Vichy France. They refuse, insisting Paris is their home. Defeated, Lazare hides the papers inside the frame of his mother’s painting of the Arc de Triomphe.

Noticing his prosthetic is worn and his hands smell of motor oil, Magda decides to repaint the wooden hand. Over the course of the afternoon, she masterfully repaints it to look realistic, carefully matching his skin tone. Lazare realizes that while he has failed to protect his parents, they are still trying to protect him.

Rose arrives in Scotland for Special Operations Executive training. She reflects on her recruitment by Captain Jepson for the SOE’s French Section, where her role will be to organize resistance in France and liaise with London. Before leaving London, she visited her family’s graves and vowed to make them proud. Churchill privately told Rose goodbye in the war rooms, confirming that he knows about her recruitment.

At Garramor House, she meets nine other candidates, including Felix Renaud, a former French Grand Prix driver, and her roommate, Muriel Brown. The first exercise is a three-hour cross-country trek through punishing terrain, which Rose’s group completes within the time limit. An assault course follows. Rose repeatedly fails to climb a 10-foot sheer wall, and when a candidate named Phyllis gets her hair tangled in barbed wire, Rose disobeys orders to go back and help her. Lieutenant Clarke cuts Phyllis’s hair to free her and threatens to send Rose home if she disobeys again.

That evening, Rose and Muriel bond. Rose shares the story of Charlie and her parents; Muriel reveals she has a toddler daughter, Mabel, and joined the SOE so Mabel would not grow up under Hitler. They place photos of Charlie and Mabel on their dresser and watch as Phyllis quietly leaves with her suitcase.

Rose excels at weapons training and demolitions, becoming one of the best shots and learning to sabotage railways, vehicles, and telephone exchanges with plastic explosives. She continues struggling with the wall, practicing with Muriel’s help.

During unarmed combat training, Clarke singles Rose out, repeatedly throws her to the ground, and strikes her with his elbow, bloodying her nose. Felix attempts to intervene but is dismissed. Rose refuses to quit. Felix later reveals that his son, Mathieu, was captured by the Germans at the Maginot Line, explaining his fears about the dangers awaiting SOE agents in France. That evening, Rose overhears Maxwell and Clarke in the instructor’s office: Clarke recommends sending Rose home, calling her weak, while Maxwell suggests giving her more time before ultimately requesting Clarke’s written recommendation. Devastated, Rose slips out of bed after the house is silent, determined to change course.

Knowing she faces dismissal, Rose bumps into Clarke in the dining room and slips a note into his pocket. In Maxwell’s office, Clarke and Maxwell inform her it is best for her to leave. Rose argues her case, then asks Maxwell to read Clarke’s written report aloud. Maxwell reads a glowing account calling Rose keen, confident, and ideally fit for the job. A shocked Clarke says that is not his report. Rose admits she forged it and broke into Clarke’s room while he slept. When Clarke demands proof, she tells him to check his pocket. He finds the note warning that had the writer been a Nazi, Clarke would be dead.

Maxwell dismisses Rose, then enters her room and tells her that while her actions were a crime, they are precisely the skills needed for an SOE agent. He explains that the SOE increasingly needs women agents because male operatives are too easily noticed, captured, and executed in occupied France. Clarke, though furious, has agreed to let her continue training.

On July 16, 1942, Lazare and Claudius return to the catacombs after sabotaging a German telephone exchange. When a comrade jokes about blowing up SD headquarters, Lazare says he will do it. A young scout rushes in to report that police are rounding up Jews everywhere. Lazare insists on leaving to warn his parents, forcing Claudius to relent by threatening a standoff.

On the streets, Lazare witnesses police loading Jewish families onto buses. He realizes with horror that French authorities—not just the Nazis—are participating in the mass arrests. He reaches his parents’ apartment to find it ransacked, a neighbor looting his mother’s wardrobe. The neighbor tells him the police took his parents, then screams out the window to alert police. Lazare cuts open the back of his mother’s Arc de Triomphe painting, finds the fake identification papers, and escapes down the fire escape just as police burst in.

Lazare returns to the catacombs and tells Claudius his parents were taken. Claudius confirms the Jews are likely being held at the Vélodrome d’Hiver, an indoor cycling track repurposed as an internment camp. He admits not all Resistance men would risk their lives for Jews and has sent the others to a safe house. The realization devastates Lazare, who would willingly risk his life for any member of the Resistance.

Lazare asks Claudius to contact his British SOE contact, Prosper, for help. Claudius agrees but tells Lazare to stay underground. Lazare disobeys and goes to the velodrome, witnessing thousands of Jews being forced inside, but the area is too heavily guarded for him to act. Claudius finds him and takes him to an apartment where they meet Marcelline, Claudius’s sister, a nurse permitted inside the velodrome. She describes unbearable conditions: intense heat, no lavatories, a single water tap, and people being shot for trying to escape. Lazare asks her to find his parents and tell them he loves them.

After two days of roundups involving over 10,000 Jews, Claudius gives Lazare a letter from his father, smuggled out by Marcelline. Gervais takes full blame for refusing to leave Paris, absolves Lazare of any fault, and implores him to fight against such atrocities. The letter ends with expressions of pride and love. Lazare collapses and weeps.