Michael's parents witness Nazi violence against Jews during Kristallnacht and reveal for the first time that they are secretly Allied spies.

At a Nazi dinner party, Michael uses his photographic memory to steal a set of secret numbers hidden inside a playing card.

Michael stands up for classmate Fritz Brendler when fellow Hitler Youth boys attack Fritz for hesitating during a book burning.

During a Hitler Youth search for a downed British pilot, Michael locates the airman first and hides him from the search party.

Michael leads his parents to the barn hiding the wounded British pilot, and the family agrees to shelter him at the embassy.

Sheltered at the Irish Embassy, the British pilot reveals his name is Simon Cohen and that he was sent to photograph Projekt 1065.

Fritz Brendler shows Michael blueprints for Projekt 1065 stolen from his father's study, unaware of Michael's true mission.

At the Hitler Youth initiation ceremony, Michael and Fritz receive SRD assignments and daggers engraved with the motto "Blood and Honor."

Fritz leads his SRD classmates in attacking Professor Melcher and handing the teacher over to the Gestapo for disloyalty.

Michael secretly sabotages the antiaircraft radar during an air raid so that the guns miss their British aircraft targets.

A dying Hitler Youth boy reveals to Michael that Fritz's secret team plans to assassinate a Jewish scientist named Hendrik Goldsmit.

Michael turns Simon in to the Gestapo, and Simon deliberately provokes the guards into shooting him to protect his secrets.

Michael replaces a deceased team member and joins Fritz and the other boys on a trip to a Swiss Alps conference resort.

Michael conquers his fear of heights to climb onto the cable car roof and confront Fritz, who is guarding the suitcase bomb.

Back in London, Michael reconstructs the complete Projekt 1065 blueprints entirely from memory for the Royal Air Force.

Michael O'Shaunessey, the thirteen-year-old son of Ireland's ambassador to Germany, has been spying on the Nazis alongside his parents since witnessing the horrors of Kristallnacht. After rescuing a downed British pilot named Simon Cohen and sheltering him at the embassy, Michael discovers that his classmate Fritz has access to the blueprints of a secret Nazi jet program called Projekt 1065. Michael infiltrates the Hitler Youth and eventually the elite SRD unit, getting closer to Fritz while memorizing the blueprints for Simon to carry back to England. When a plot to assassinate a scientist working on the Allied atomic bomb is uncovered, Michael is forced to make a devastating sacrifice, turning Simon in to the Gestapo to earn a place on the Nazi assassination team. Michael travels to Switzerland where he foils the plot in a life-or-death confrontation on a cable car high above the Alps. He ends his mission by reconstructing the Projekt 1065 blueprints from memory for the Royal Air Force in London.

The headline events of Michael's wartime spy mission against the Nazis.

Michael's mother uses a chloroform-soaked handkerchief to knock out a butler who nearly catches Michael spying at the dinner party.

Walking to school through bombed-out Berlin, Michael observes citizens whispering doubts about the Nazis only after performing the cautious "German Look."

Teacher Melcher announces that the class will be promoted to the senior Hitler Youth a full year earlier than expected.

Fritz rescues Michael from nearly falling out of the barn hayloft and promises to keep Michael's fear of heights a secret.

Simon reveals his own lifelong fear of birds to Michael and encourages him to take small steps toward overcoming his acrophobia.

Michael and Fritz are paired against each other in the Hitler Youth initiation boxing match, and Michael beats Fritz badly.

Fritz invites Michael home to celebrate joining the SRD and reveals a secret stash of forbidden British detective novels.

Simon teaches Michael the memory-sharpening "Kim's Game" so Michael can better reconstruct the Projekt 1065 blueprints from memory.

Fritz's young sister Lina discovers Michael examining the Projekt 1065 blueprints in their father's study.

Michael discovers a telegram on Professor Melcher's desk revealing that Melcher's son was killed on the Russian front.

Michael calls the city police during the SRD's assault on Melcher, but the officers are too frightened of the SRD to intervene.

Michael reaches the rendezvous point to escort Simon to safety but arrives too late and finds Simon has already gone.

Simon returns to the embassy on his own, revealing he was stabbed in the stomach by a young Hitler Youth boy.

Michael tracks down Horst after the cinema, beats him severely, and draws an edelweiss symbol on the wall in Horst's blood.

Michael and Goldsmit arrive safely at the Irish Embassy in Switzerland and discover that Michael's parents are already there waiting.

Beyond the headline spy missions, Michael's life in Nazi Germany is shaped by a web of friendships, small acts of resistance, and quiet discoveries. The bonds between Michael and both Fritz and Simon deepen through shared secrets, forbidden books, and honest conversations about fear and sacrifice. Key background events — from Melcher's veiled classroom resistance to the political terror that silences ordinary Germans — illuminate the brutal reality of life under Nazi rule. Michael sharpens his spy skills through memory games and careful observation, while Fritz steadily rises in Nazi circles in ways Michael struggles to accept. These events build toward the crisis of Simon's escape attempt, Michael's desperate efforts to stop the assassination plot, and the bittersweet reunion at the Swiss embassy that closes the mission.

The quieter moments, friendships, and discoveries that shape Michael's world.

Young Michael watches in horror and helplessness as Nazi men beat and kill a Jewish man in the street during Kristallnacht.

SS officers discover the camera Simon Cohen had hidden in a haystack and expose the film to sunlight, destroying the reconnaissance evidence.

The O'Shaunessey family learns that the pilot they have been sheltering at their embassy is Jewish, dramatically raising the risk to all.

Michael rushes to tell Simon that Fritz Brendler possesses Projekt 1065 blueprints, giving Simon a path to completing his original mission.

Simon guides Michael to the embassy rooftop during an active air raid to force Michael to confront his crippling fear of heights.

Fritz pushes Michael off the high initiation ledge into the pool below during the courage test, the only way Michael can pass.

Trumbauer recruits Fritz to a mysterious special SRD team and awards him the legendary nickname "Quex" in front of the other boys.

Professor Melcher covertly defies Nazi doctrine in class by exposing the glaring contradictions in Hitler's own racial ideology.

The SS announces that the Hitler Youth boys will now operate the antiaircraft guns during raids, making the teenagers prime bombing targets.

Michael's family identifies Hendrik Goldsmit as a physicist secretly helping the Allies develop an atomic bomb.

Michael visits Fritz and finds him burning his own treasured collection of forbidden detective novels in a fire outside his home.

Michael impulsively tells Fritz that his parents have been hiding a British pilot, setting in motion the plan to betray Simon.

Swiss soldiers open the suspect suitcase and find only clothing inside, revealing that Fritz has been carrying the actual bomb all along.

Fritz confronts Michael on the cable car roof, accusing him of only befriending Fritz in order to steal the Projekt 1065 blueprints.

The suitcase bomb detonates against the mountainside and triggers a massive avalanche, sending Fritz to his death while Michael holds on and survives.

Beneath the main action of Michael's spy mission lies a series of pivotal moments that shift the story's direction and raise its stakes at every turn. Each revelation — from the family's discovery that the pilot they are sheltering is Jewish, to the exposure of a plot against an Allied atomic scientist — forces Michael to make harder choices and grow up faster than he is ready for. Fritz's transformation from a bullied boy into a fanatical Nazi soldier is charted through a series of turning points, from his recruitment to a secret team to the night Michael finds him burning his own books. Michael's long struggle to overcome his fear of heights, nurtured through small steps with Simon's support, reaches its climax when he must choose between paralysis and action above the Swiss Alps. The final confrontation between Michael and Fritz carries the weight of every sacrifice that has come before it, ending in tragedy for Fritz and a hard-won survival for Michael.