The Bletchley Riddle

Lizzie and Colin are running through London to her flat. They enter and rush upstairs. There is evidence that someone has been in the flat since she left. It’s very messy. She checks beneath the floorboard in the closet, and it has been cleared out too.

Someone opens the door, and Colin and Lizzie hide inside the closet. It’s Fleetwood. They hear him take a bottle from the liquor cabinet and leave. They stay in hiding, cautious of it being a trap.

After 10 minutes, they open the door and sneak out. Fleetwood is gone. They decide to eat. They are getting ready to leave for the train station when Colin spots a picture of Lizzie’s parents. He recognizes Willa—he has seen her.

Jakob is woken up by Lizzie dumping a glass of water on him. She demands to know about Willa visiting him at the Mutton. She’s upset that Jakob didn’t tell her. In a flashback, Jakob recalls Willa’s visit to him.

She arrived unexpectedly, having found him through her connections in London. She told him about her plans to travel to Poland. She also told him to write to Lizzy more and study Polish.

Lizzie is fighting back tears, furious at Jakob for not telling her that Willa visited him before leaving for Poland. She decides not to tell him about the diary she found beneath the floor of the flat. Jakob asks Lizzie where she went that day, and she says she went to London and met Olivia, who saw Willa in Warsaw. Jakob is shocked by this.

Lizzie says that Olivia saw Willa with a group of Polish people on the day of the evacuation, but when the time came, she was nowhere to be found. Jakob wonders how much they know about Willa, and how she could find them. He then decides to tell Lizzie about the code Willa left for him in newspaper clippings.

Jakob shows Lizzie the newspaper clipping that Willa gave him, dated August 1939. It’s a homemaker’s article, something Willa hates. Tiny pinpricks have been poked through the paper, a classic code where you only read certain letters. They say, “Your father would be proud of you.”

Lizzie wonders if it could just be a game she left for him, but Jakob doesn’t think so. He recalls that she behaved like she knew she wasn’t coming back. Jakob loses patience with the conversation and raises his voice. Lizzie grows cold toward him, and he leaves.

Jakob is in the Park’s hedge maze. He eventually finds the clearing in the middle of the maze. He lies down, looks at Jupiter, and thinks about the first time he saw it with his father, who died shortly after, an event that devastated Jakob. He resolved never to be shocked by something like that ever again.

He goes to Hut 6 at midnight for another unsuccessful night of work. Over the next week, he trains John and Beryl, Lizzie doesn’t speak to him, and he trains with the home guard. One morning, the Colonel says that they’re failing and nearly out of time.

Lizzie is upset with Jakob and refuses to talk to him. She is upset that Willa didn’t leave her with a coded message. She’s on the bus to Hertfordshire on her way to the American Embassy party with Marion. Marion is excited to be going to an American party.

They get off the bus, and Olivia, riding in a motorcycle side car, stops for them. The driver is her boyfriend, Denny. They arrive at the manor and head into the party. Olivia reveals that the last time she spoke to Willa, she was at the table of a Mr. Rejewski and looking for a shovel.

Olivia presents Marion and Lizzie to Ambassador Kennedy. Marion accidentally reveals that she lives in Bletchley, and Lizzie intervenes, introducing herself as Willa’s daughter. The ambassador looks upset. Lizzie lies and says she is staying in Llangollen with Viola. The ambassador says he’ll talk to Lizzie later, privately.

Jakob leaves the Mutton and asks Colin where Lizzie is. Colin doesn’t say and questions how Jakob treats Lizzie. Jakob reflects on his relationship with Lizzie, thinking of the childhood games they played with codes when they were younger.

Jakob meets John, and they walk to the park. John says he felt like he was close to decoding something about the Enigma machine.

Marion and Lizzie explore the castle where the party is being held. During a screening of The Wizard of Oz, Lizzie is told she can go speak to the ambassador. Marion and Lizzie go, but the ambassador wants to speak to Lizzie alone.

The ambassador reveals that the plan to go to Warsaw was Willa’s idea. The ambassador has no confirmation that Willa is dead. He has been in contact with Willa’s grandmother, and Mr. Fleetwood is there to collect Lizzie.

Jakob is in Hut 6 with Beryl and John. They are working on Enigma codes. He is distracted by all the goings-on in his personal life. He thinks about the intention behind the Enigma machine, a security system operated by trained professionals that is now being used by a greater array of people on the front lines. John has a spark of inspiration.

Mr. Fleetwood now has Lizzie cornered. She speaks loudly to alert Marion of his presence and then pretends that Fleetwood left her behind accidentally. She uses the confusion to slip out and climb into a dumbwaiter. She drops into the kitchen and flees past the staff, linking up again with Marion. Marion says that she went to Olivia, and Denny will help them. Denny picks them up on his motorcycle, and they flee.

Jakob rushes to Welchman’s lodgings and wakes him up. They drive back to the Park and enter Hut 6. Jakob, Beryl, and John explain that they think that when the rings on the machine are set, operators may be inclined to use them in the preamble. It’s not a common mistake, but if a few do it, they can spot the pattern. This would give them the machine settings used by the Germans for 24 hours.

Denny, Lizzie, and Marion are fleeing on his bike. Lizzie doesn’t want him to know where they live exactly because of the Official Secrets Act and has him drop them off at a cemetery. They return to the Mutton. Colin lets them in. Lizzie explains what happened to Colin. They are worried that Fleetwood is on his way because Marion revealed she was in Bletchley. They share the new info they have about Willa, including that she was looking for a shovel shortly before her disappearance.