Dragonfly

Set during World War II and framed by a 1962 narrative, the novel follows five young Americans recruited by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), America's first centralized spy agency, to infiltrate German-occupied Paris as intelligence operatives. Their collective code name is Dragonfly.

In September 1962, retired OSS case officer Alistair Renault discovers a chapter in an obscure book by John Peterson claiming that the missing fifth member of Dragonfly survived the firing squad three teammates witnessed in 1944. Stunned, Alistair contacts the four surviving members and begins investigating. The narrative shifts to 1942 to tell the full story.

In May 1942, Alistair, deputy to OSS Director Colonel William "Wild Bill" Donovan, identifies five candidates, each fluent in French or German and possessing a specialized skill. Samuel "Bucky" Barton (code name Lodestar), a civil engineer from Oklahoma, secretly hopes to find his biological father, Nicholas Cravois, a French Resistance leader known as the Black Ghost. Bridgette Loring (code name Labrador), a fashion designer from Michigan, volunteers after losing her only family and her career prospects. Christoph "Chris" Brandt (code name Lapwing), a Texas teacher of German descent rejected from military service because he was born without a thumb, joins to prove his American loyalty. Brad Hudson (code name Limpet), a fly-fisherman from Colorado, contacts the OSS after his widowed mother remarries, partially freeing him from family obligations. Victoria Grayson (code name Liverwort), a translator from a wealthy Virginia family, joins to learn the fate of her fiancé, an American pilot in the Royal Air Force shot down near Paris.

The five undergo rigorous training, during which Bridgette emerges as the natural leader. Alistair selects her as the radio operator and head of Dragonfly. She devises an ingenious communication system: a mural painted on the courtyard wall of the convent where she will live, incorporating each member's code symbol into an aquatic landscape with markings that convey coded messages. Before departing, the team agrees to reunite on September 23 in the Rose Main Reading Room of the New York Public Library after the war ends.

In the fall of 1942, the agents are dropped separately into Paris and assume cover identities. Bucky works at a French engineering firm; Bridgette assists at a fashion house and lives in a convent under the protection of Sister Mary Frances, a sympathetic nun; Chris teaches physical education at a school for sons of Nazi and Vichy elite; Brad works as a fishing guide; and Victoria instructs fencing. They share a single dead-letter box for passing intelligence to Bridgette, who transmits it to Alistair in Bern, Switzerland.

Their covers bring them close to high-ranking Germans. Brad befriends Major General Konrad March, head of the Abwehr (German military intelligence) in Paris, through their shared passion for fly-fishing. March's lonely son, Wilhelm, grows attached to Brad, and Chris is hired to tutor the boy, giving both men access to the general's home. Victoria fences weekly with Colonel Derrick Albrecht, chief of Nazi counterintelligence in Paris, a former German fencing champion who spent a year at Harvard and detects her American accent from their first meeting.

Complications multiply. Bucky discovers that a fellow boarder is Dirk Drechsler, an American from Chris's Texas hometown who defected to the Abwehr and serves as a Gestapo interpreter. Dirk follows Bucky to a secret meeting with Nicholas Cravois but does not report it. Victoria learns from the boardinghouse proprietor that her fiancé is dead but decides to continue her mission. A French policeman grows fixated on Bridgette's mural, and Chris's hostile sports director remains suspicious of him. Alistair, alarmed by these threats, asks Donovan for permission to extract the team, but Donovan refuses. Alistair sends his Paris contact to brief each member and offer extraction; all five vote unanimously to stay.

What the team does not know is that both March and Albrecht are secretly working against Hitler. March confirms through fingerprint analysis that Brad is a spy but chooses to use him as a conduit for feeding genuine intelligence to the Allies. Albrecht, fully aware of Victoria's identity, poisons Beaumont Fournier, a French author who has come to betray her to Nazi intelligence, then deliberately channels classified information through Victoria to aid the Allied cause.

The remaining threats are systematically neutralized. Alistair's network kills the policeman after Sister Mary Frances warns that he has discovered Bridgette's hidden radio. Chris photographs the sports director in a compromising encounter and anonymously sends the evidence to the Gestapo, resulting in the man's arrest. Dirk disappears permanently after refusing an escape route over the Pyrenees, his fate implied to be execution by the Resistance.

As D-Day approaches, intelligence flows rapidly. Bucky tours the Atlantic Wall defenses and produces reports aiding invasion planning. Brad reports naval mines and tungsten shipments. When the Abwehr is abolished in February 1944, March fears arrest and asks Brad and Chris to smuggle Wilhelm to safety in Switzerland, which they accomplish.

On June 6, 1944, the Allies invade Normandy. That same day, a Gestapo informant identifies all five agents when they accidentally converge at the mural. Victoria, Brad, Chris, and Bucky are arrested. Albrecht claims jurisdiction and transfers the prisoners from Gestapo headquarters.

He stages a convincing mock execution of Victoria, using theatrical makeup and a firing squad of loyal soldiers before a Gestapo audience. Brad, Chris, and Bucky watch from a cell window and believe they witness her death. Victoria is transported to a countryside chateau and nursed back to health. The three men are brought to General March's house and told they have been rescued. Brad agrees to bring Wilhelm to America.

Bridgette is arrested separately at the fashion house and claimed as a personal dressmaker by the wife of the Drancy internment camp commandant. Imprisoned for over two months, she witnesses deportations and secretly records atrocities on a bolt of muslin. When the Allies approach Paris in August, the German staff flees and the camp is liberated on August 17.

Albrecht plans to surrender to the Americans and arrange Victoria's extraction, but French detective Maurice Corbett arrests him first for Fournier's murder. Albrecht asks Corbett to arrange Victoria's safe transport, which Corbett does. Albrecht is tried and executed by guillotine in late 1945.

The agents return to their American lives. Bucky reveals to his mother that he knows the truth of his parentage after she discovers Nicholas Cravois's military epaulettes; he later learns his biological father was captured and killed by the Nazis. Brad brings Wilhelm home to Colorado, where his family embraces the boy; when March is hanged by the Nazis, Brad promises to raise Wilhelm. Chris pursues his doctorate in Austin, and Bridgette works in fashion in New York. Victoria takes a translator job in Toronto, abandons fencing, and eventually marries a man named Richard.

Victoria misses the team's reunion at the New York Public Library on September 23, 1945, because her mother dies that morning. She leaves a letter explaining her survival, but it never reaches Alistair. For 17 years, the four surviving members believe she is dead.

In 1962, after Alistair confirms through testimony from Karl Brunner, Albrecht's former driver, that the execution was a ruse, Bridgette persuades the group to travel to Paris. On September 23, they visit the preserved mural and discover a fresh mark across Victoria's code symbol. At four o'clock, they enter La Petite Madeleine, the tea-and-book shop where the team once met during the war, and find Victoria waiting for them. That evening, Victoria calls Richard and tells him she is ready to share the full story of her past. Alistair later writes a book about Dragonfly titled The Mark on the Wall, which becomes a bestseller.