Night of the Fox

Professor Alan Stacy travels to Jersey to finish his biography of his late friend and former associate Harry Martineau. He attends Harry's funeral, where only Dr. Sarah Drayton mourns. Sarah reveals that she and Harry worked for the SOE during the war and shows Stacy a photo of them with Erwin Rommel, beginning to recount the past.

In the World War II flashback, after the Slapton Sands disaster, US Army Colonel Hugh Kelso washes ashore on Jersey and is rescued by Hélène de Ville, who contacts London. Brigadier Dougal Munro of the SOE realizes Kelso knows critical details of the planned D-Day landings and resolves to either rescue or eliminate him. The mission to safeguard Kelso thus launches the operation.

Munro persuades Harry Martineau and Sarah Drayton to undertake one last operation. Harry becomes SD Standartenführer Max Vogel, while Sarah assumes the cover identity of Anne-Marie de la Tour, a wealthy French mistress. Their recruitment marks the transformation from academic roles to covert operatives.

Harry and Sarah are smuggled to France and then travel to occupied Jersey as part of the mission. Harry sails on a naval vessel, while Sarah travels on a cargo boat commanded by Captain Guido Orsini. Kelso is wary of their arrival, adding tension to the operation.

A small airplane is awaiting the weekly mail flight, and Rommel’s arrival on a surprise tour of inspection triggers a tense contingency. Most participants do not know that the ‘Rommel’ they meet is actually Corporal Erich Berger, a double who serves the general. The deception holds significance for the mission’s viability.

Harry unmasks the ‘Rommel’ as Berger and learns the truth: Berger is actually Heini Baum, a German Jew who has assumed the identity of the dead officer and survived as a soldier. Berger agrees to cooperate and reveals his hidden background to the team.

The operation is nearly derailed by a German military policeman who holds the group at gunpoint. They overpower him, place him in a car, set it alight, and push it over a cliff to avoid capture. Baum urges the team to persevere and complete the mission despite the danger.

Sarah, Harry, Baum, and Orsini seize the aircraft and fly toward France, hoping to evade discovery. The crew is overcome and ordered to fly to England, with a Luftwaffe night fighter closing in. A crew member is killed, and Harry orders a low-altitude pass to draw the fighter away, causing it to crash.

The survivors reach England and establish radio contact with the RAF. Upon landing, they are surrounded by armed soldiers, and Baum is shot by a guard—likely on Munro’s orders—before he dies, begging Harry to say Kaddish for him.

The narrative returns to the present as Sarah reveals that she later married Orsini and lived in Florence as Contessa Orsini. She continues her friendship with Stacy while recounting the past, intertwining personal history with wartime memory.

Sarah tells Stacy that Harry continued to work for the SOE after the war but was shot down by friendly fire a few months later. His body was buried in the Essex marshes and was not found until recently, leading to a belated burial that finally honors his sacrifice.