The Key to Rebecca

Set during the summer of 1942, as German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps advances toward Egypt, the story follows a German spy's mission to relay British military secrets to Rommel and the British intelligence officer determined to stop him.

Alex Wolff, who grew up in Cairo as the son of a German mother and an Egyptian lawyer, crosses the Sahara on foot from Libya into Egypt. Recruited by the Abwehr, or German military intelligence, in 1938 and trained in Berlin, Wolff carries three suitcases: one holding a compact radio transmitter and a copy of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier with a folded code key inside; one filled with English pound notes; and one with clothes and supplies. He leaves the radio case with his nomad cousin Ishmael at a desert well, then walks to the town of Assyut, where a British patrol picks him up. His Egyptian identity papers pass inspection, but when a corporal opens the money case and sees the cash, Wolff kills him and flees by train to Cairo.

At GHQ Middle East, the British command headquarters in Cairo, Major William Vandam reads the incident report and suspects the murder signals a spy whose cover was nearly blown. A widower raising his ten-year-old son Billy with the help of an elderly servant named Gaafar, Vandam investigates Wolff's background and visits Wolff's empty childhood home, the Villa les Oliviers, finding it stripped of all personal documents. His superior, Lieutenant Colonel Bogge, dismisses his concerns, but Vandam quietly pursues the case, circulating Wolff's description and alerting the paymaster to watch for forged currency.

In Cairo, Wolff finds his house compromised and seeks shelter with Sonja el-Aram, the city's most famous belly dancer and his former lover. Wolff appeals to her hatred of the British, rooted in her father's death at the hands of British soldiers, and promises to take her to Berlin. Sonja reluctantly agrees to let him move onto her houseboat on the Nile. Using his Rebecca code, a variation on the one-time pad, Wolff sends his first encoded message to Rommel's listening post under the call sign "Sphinx."

Vandam recruits Elene Fontana, a young Egyptian Jewish woman whose real name is Abigail Asnani, as an informant. Elene has been living as a kept woman since her teens, when her father could no longer support the family. She agrees to gather gossip in exchange for rent money, and their mutual attraction is immediate, though Vandam's reserve keeps her at a distance.

Wolff's first attempt to steal military secrets, an elaborate street riot to snatch an officer's briefcase, yields only canteen menus. He shifts strategy, donning a fake captain's uniform to befriend Major Sandy Smith, a lonely intelligence officer who carries classified papers from GHQ. Wolff introduces Smith to Sonja, who seduces him and lures him to the houseboat at lunchtime. While Smith and Sonja are in bed, Wolff picks Smith's pocket for the briefcase keys and reads the contents. On the first productive visit, Wolff finds complete plans for Operation Aberdeen, a major Allied counterattack scheduled for June 5, and transmits the intelligence to Rommel.

The results are devastating. Rommel uses the advance warning to annihilate three Allied brigades, breaks the Allied defensive positions at Gazala, captures Tobruk, and pushes the British back. Vandam discovers a decrypt of Wolff's signal in a captured German listening post, along with a copy of Rebecca, confirming that a spy in Cairo is feeding Rommel battle plans.

In a parallel subplot, Captain Anwar el-Sadat, a young Egyptian Army officer leading the Free Officers Movement, a nationalist group seeking to overthrow British rule, attempts to contact Rommel to offer an uprising in exchange for independence. His ally, Detective Superintendent Kemel of the Cairo police, is a secret nationalist sympathizer whose double role will later prove critical.

Vandam traces Wolff's counterfeit money to a Greek grocer and places Elene in the shop. Wolff appears and secures a dinner date with Elene, but Vandam's subsequent ambush fails when Wolff evades the trap. On a separate evening, Wolff is caught passing counterfeit notes at a restaurant. Vandam pursues him through Cairo's alleys, and they grapple, but Wolff slashes Vandam's cheek with his knife and escapes. Sonja is arrested but reveals nothing and is released. Vandam arranges surveillance of the houseboat through Kemel, not knowing that Kemel sanitizes his reports in exchange for access to Wolff's radio for the nationalists.

Over the following weeks, Wolff continues reading Smith's briefcase and transmitting intelligence, including Allied defense plans at Mersa Matruh that allow Rommel to break through. As Rommel advances toward El Alamein, the Allies' last defensive line before Cairo, the city descends into panic. Vandam and Elene grow closer, and their relationship deepens into a romance. Vandam conceives a deception plan: If he can capture Wolff's radio and code key, he can impersonate the spy and feed Rommel false intelligence, luring the Germans into attacking the heavily fortified Alam Halfa Ridge through quicksand. Auchinleck, the Allied commander in chief, approves the plan, but everything depends on catching Wolff.

That same day, Smith catches Wolff reading his briefcase on the houseboat. The case contains the most dangerous intelligence yet: the complete El Alamein defense layout and a note describing Vandam's deception plan. Wolff kills Smith and sinks the body in the river.

Wolff plans to transmit at midnight but first arrives at Elene's apartment before Vandam's new ambush is ready. Vandam, who is there briefing Elene, hides behind the sofa, unable to act because Wolff is armed and Vandam has no gun. Wolff takes Elene to the pyramids, then to the houseboat, where Sonja joins them for a sexual encounter that Wolff and Sonja have planned. Elene realizes she must keep Wolff so consumed that he misses his midnight transmission. She takes control of the encounter, and midnight passes without a broadcast. Before dawn, Kemel arrives, knocks Vandam unconscious on the towpath, and ties him up. Wolff flees, giving Kemel the radio but burning the code key and throwing Rebecca into the river, revealing he has a spare set hidden at the desert well.

Wolff takes Elene to Vandam's house, poses as a British officer, and kidnaps Billy. He leaves a letter warning that Billy will be killed if pursued. Elene secretly draws an arrow in her own blood on a map in Billy's atlas, pointing to Assyut, having overheard Wolff arrange travel to that city. Vandam frees himself, raids the houseboat, and learns the full scope of the espionage operation. Finding the bloodstained atlas, he decides to pursue alone, reasoning that a military raid would provoke Wolff into killing Billy.

On the train south, Elene and Billy attempt to escape at a station stop but fail. Vandam rides his motorcycle alongside the railway and boards the train in disguise to confirm they are aboard. At Assyut, Vandam disguises himself as a taxi driver with help from a British officer stationed in the area and picks up Wolff's party. He drives them into the desert, where Wolff retrieves his spare radio, book, and code key from Ishmael. On the return drive, Billy's carsick cry of "Dad!" reveals the driver's identity. Wolff seizes Billy at knifepoint, disarms Vandam, and strands him in the desert. Billy attacks Wolff in a frenzy; Elene loses control of the car, which rolls off the road. Vandam sprints after them and fights Wolff, taking knife wounds to his leg and shoulder. Elene strikes Wolff from behind with the broken gear stick, knocking him unconscious.

On September 1, 1942, Rommel attacks the southern end of the El Alamein Line, as the deception plan intended. His forces hit heavy minefields, become mired in quicksand, and find Alam Halfa Ridge heavily defended. The Battle of Alam Halfa ends in Rommel's defeat, the turning point of the North African campaign. Wolff is imprisoned, where his mental state deteriorates. In the final scene, Vandam, Elene, and Billy go on a picnic together. A rare rainstorm has carpeted the desert with flowers, and Vandam's quiet assurance that Billy will have to get used to their togetherness signals the promise of a shared future.