Over a week later, on December 20, 1943, Lazare enters the prison courtyard, bruised from a baton beating he received as punishment for singing. He finds Felix, who has also been beaten and is missing a front tooth. Felix shares rumors that Italy has surrendered to the Allies and declared war on Germany, giving both men hope for an eventual Allied invasion.

As they walk in the courtyard, all prisoners are suddenly lined up under heavy guard. A German SS officer reads a list of prisoners to be executed at noon on February 19, 1944. To Lazare’s horror, the list includes Felix. As the officer continues reading prisoners condemned to die, Lazare waits in dread to hear whether his own name will be called.

On December 27, 1943, Rose conducts an inventory of weapons and supplies in an abandoned granary in Valmondois. Operating as organizer, courier, and wireless operator for her own network, Dragonfly, she has recruited over seventy Resistance fighters and arranged numerous RAF airdrops and sabotage missions. With Claudius’s help, she has effectively rebuilt the shattered local Resistance network, turning the granary into a major depot for British arms and explosives.

Rose recently learned from Claudius that Lazare and Felix are imprisoned at Amiens. She has scouted the perimeter twice but cannot see inside the high walls. Claudius arrives with devastating news: Over 100 prisoners, including Lazare and Felix, will be executed on February 19. Rose transmits the information to London and requests assistance, receiving only silence.

The next day, Rose and Claudius meet Resistance leader Dominique Ponchardier at a remote farmhouse. After winning his trust, Rose reveals her plan: an RAF bombing raid to breach the prison walls. Ponchardier initially dismisses it as ludicrous and questions the risk to French lives. Claudius points to the earlier Allied bombing of the German-controlled Dunlop tire factory in Montluçon, requested by Rose, as proof that British command may seriously consider the operation. Rose challenges Ponchardier directly and asks if he would he prefer a chance at freedom through bombing or certain death by firing squad.

On December 28, 1943, Rose and Claudius return to the granary. After hours of debate, Ponchardier has agreed to try obtaining the prison blueprints. Rose transmits a message to London officially requesting an RAF raid on Amiens Prison. Headquarters replies only to stand by for further orders.

Over the following week, Rose sends daily transmissions urging action but receives no confirmation. Despite the growing risk that repeated transmissions could expose her location to German wireless detection, Rose refuses to stop pressing London for approval of the mission. Ponchardier has not yet obtained the blueprints. Rose vows that if the mission is not approved, she will load explosives onto a lorry and breach the prison wall herself.

On January 11, 1944, Winston Churchill sits alone in the Cabinet War Room when Maurice Buckmaster, leader of F Section of the SOE, arrives for a private meeting. Buckmaster informs him that the Germans plan to execute over 100 French Resistance prisoners at Amiens on February 19, including at least one SOE agent, and that an agent in the field has recommended an RAF raid on the prison.

Buckmaster reveals the agent is Rose Teasdale, whom Churchill himself recommended for SOE recruitment, and details her accomplishments since deployment. He reports that prison blueprints have been received from Ponchardier and suggests Air Vice-Marshal Embry could plan the raid. He also proposes that official records obscure the raid’s origins, making it appear instigated by the French for political deniability. After considering both the political risks and the possibility that such a raid could misdirect Hitler about the future Allied invasion of France, Churchill states he will give his opinion immediately.

On February 17, 1944, two days before the scheduled executions, Lazare goes to the courtyard for what he assumes is a final walk. In cold, sleeting weather, he finds Felix, who tells him another condemned man has died by suicide—one of several since the announcement. Lazare and Felix say their final goodbyes, and Felix walks away humming “Le Chant des Partisans.” Determined not to spend his final days consumed by fear, Lazare retreats into memories of the life the Nazis failed to take from him.

Alone in his cell, Lazare thinks of his parents and imagines a full life with Rose that he knows will never happen—marriage, children, growing old together. Accepting his fate, he whispers goodbye to her and falls into a deep sleep.

At noon on February 18, 1944, the cathedral bells wake Lazare. The condemned prisoners are no longer being fed. When a German guard arrives for a final courtyard walk, the distinctive roar of low-flying aircraft approaches. Recognizing that the engines do not belong to German Luftwaffe planes, Lazare realizes the aircraft is heading directly toward the prison. An alarm bell sounds, and most guards flee the cellblock.

The remaining guard tries to secure Lazare’s cell. Lazare punches him through the bars and grabs the key, but it jams in the lock. As the guard draws his pistol, Lazare jiggles the key until the lock clicks open. He pushes the door, and the guard raises his weapon to fire.

From a parked lorry on the Albert-Amiens Road, Rose watches RAF Mosquito bombers and Typhoon fighters approach Amiens Prison at extremely low altitude. Hours earlier, she received word that Operation Jericho—the codename for the raid—would commence at midday. Rose interprets the codename as a reference to the biblical fall of Jericho’s walls. She and Claudius rushed from Valmondois on icy roads without time to alert Ponchardier or arrange shelters for escaping prisoners. They position their vehicles on opposite sides of the prison to help any escaping prisoners flee the area.

A lead bomber drops a canister that strikes the base of the prison wall. German watchtowers open fire on the aircraft. Seconds later, the delayed bomb detonates and breaches the wall.

An explosion rocks the prison. The guard fires at Lazare but misses. Lazare tackles him but is overpowered and pistol-whipped. As the guard prepares to execute him, two prisoners in the opposite cell grab the guard through the bars, killing him. Lazare retrieves the pistol and key and unlocks dozens of cell doors, freeing more than 40 prisoners who rush toward the courtyard. He sees the breach in the wall but also heavy fire from German watchtowers and instructs the prisoners to use smoke from a burning guardhouse as cover.

A British plane then drops another bomb near the cellblock. Lazare pushes the remaining prisoners toward the courtyard before diving for cover. The bomb explodes, collapsing the cellblock wall on top of him. Pinned under rubble and unable to breathe, Lazare thinks of Rose one last time before losing consciousness.

Rose sees prisoners escaping through the breached wall. She drives her lorry toward them and finds Felix helping a wounded man. Felix tells her Lazare’s cellblock was hit by a bomb. Rose becomes consumed by the fear that the raid she orchestrated may have killed him. Devastated but burying her grief, Rose helps Felix load wounded prisoners into the lorry.

Felix drives while Rose rides in the passenger seat. A German guard opens fire, shattering the windshield, and Rose discovers Felix has been shot in the abdomen. As he weakens, Felix expresses regret for his mistakes as organizer and gives Rose final messages for his wife and son. Rose asks if he knows where Muriel is being held, but he does not.

Felix nearly crashes, and Rose takes the wheel, but the rescued prisoners abandon the lorry and flee into the forest. A Wehrmacht roadblock blocks the road ahead and a convoy closes in behind. Rose realizes Felix has died. Finding no ammunition and rejecting her suicide pill, she accelerates toward the roadblock. Soldiers open fire, bursting a tire and sending the lorry into a ditch. Dazed, Rose is dragged from the vehicle, handcuffed, and thrown into a Wehrmacht vehicle.