In September 1940, the American war correspondent Mitch Mitchell, Don Ameche of Consolidated Press of America (a syndicate that represents around 1,000 newspapers), is stationed in London and hungry for a dramatic scoop on the anticipated German invasion. He goes to great lengths to beat his rivals, including renting Sir Titus Scott’s wire from Penzance in Cornwall for a week at a steep price in order to save precious minutes on his transmissions and pigeon-delivered updates. The plan hinges on coded radio messages and homing pigeons, with twelve-year-old Albert Perkins and the elderly Mr. Bindle watching the pigeons for him as part of a tense, makeshift information network.
During one of the countless nocturnal air raids over London, Mitch meets Jennifer Carson, Joan Bennett a teletype operator at the Ministry of Information. They seek shelter together in the Tube and quickly form a wary bond as they navigate the chaos above ground. When a vicious raid tears through their working world, destroying the Consolidated offices and all teletype machines, Mitch nevertheless secures Jennifer’s help and even acquires a spare teletype from Duffield, Dennis Hoey a Ministry of Information official. He then persuades Mr. Hobbs, Eric Blore the Regency Hotel’s managing director, to let Consolidated Press establish a new headquarters in the hotel’s wine cellar.
A bomb crashes into the cellar, yet at first it seems that it is only a dud. The tension escalates when Jeff, a blind Consolidated employee, realizes the danger is live and warns Mitch just as the long-awaited pigeon signal finally arrives. Mitch rushes to evacuate, but Jennifer suspects he is trying to bypass the censor, Captain Lionel Channing, John Loder, and she refuses to leave his side. Before they can escape, another bomb seals the cellar entrance, trapping them inside.
From there, Mitch seizes his chance to deliver a scoop by directing Jennifer to use the teletype to report that Hitler has moved to Calais, a clear sign that an invasion is imminent. Jennifer, horrified by the idea of uncensored broadcasting, begs him to stop. A struggle ensues, and Mitch ends up locking her up as the danger outside closes in. In the midst of this, Albert Perkins phones in with more vital pigeoned information, but the aerial attack interrupts the call and Albert is killed. Devastated, Mitch chooses to withhold the news and instead recounts Albert’s death to the rescue team. When the danger finally subsides and the rescue team frees them, Mitch and Jennifer walk out of the wine cellar together, tempered by the ordeal but united in their shared wartime ordeal.
