The Scarlet Coat

In 1780, Major John Bolton intercepts a British spy leaving the Storm King Tavern and kills him, seizing a coded letter. He reports to General Howe that the message from Gustavus to James Osborn mentions Arnold's command at West Point, signaling a highly placed spy. The discovery sets Bolton on a risky counterintelligence path.

Bolton returns to the tavern and learns from his contact Ben Potter that Sally Cameron, the Tory wife of a redcoat, is traveling under a flag of truce possibly carrying information. He searches her room and takes her safe conduct pass after a tense exchange. The scene heightens the stakes of who is trustworthy.

Sally Cameron tries to recover the pass by seducing Bolton, but he rebuffs her advances. She hints at information she might possess, intensifying the cat-and-mouse dynamic between spy networks. Bolton remains wary of her loyalties.

A messenger arrives with a package for Mr. Moody; when no one knows that name, Col. Winfield offers to deliver it. Bolton realizes Winfield is an imposter, and in a struggle over the package, he kills him. The package turns out to be a ream of blank paper concealing another message.

American officers arrest Bolton for murder and deliver him to General Howe. The discovery of Moody’s pass on Winfield’s boot confirms the impostor’s role in the spy network. Bolton faces the consequences but remains determined to uncover the full plot.

A pass through the lines found in Winfield’s boot reveals that the impostor Moody carried a coded letter from Gustavus to Osborn. There is also an invisible ink message calling for an urgent meeting to finalize an unknown arrangement. Bolton begins to piece together the larger conspiracy.

Howe proposes that Bolton desert and re-enter British lines to advance the mission. Bolton agrees, fully aware he could be executed if discovered. With Moody’s pass, he crosses back to the British, closely followed by a suspicious lieutenant.

In New York, Bolton seeks Dr. Odell to deliver the letter. Odell brings Bolton to Major John André, who uses a pair of spectacles to decipher key words. Although Odell remains skeptical, André takes an immediate liking to Bolton and considers his potential value.

Bolton attends a dinner where Sally Cameron is present as André’s mistress, and his explanations align with André’s expectations. Sally provides an eyewitness corroborating the murder linked to the earlier case. The dinner deepens Bolton’s precarious position between both sides.

Bolton is sent with two Tory agents to sabotage the chain barrier across the Hudson at Verplanck, enabling a British river assault. He drowns one agent before a confrontation with Ben Potter, who disarms Bolton and shoots the other agent. The mission tests Bolton’s resolve under fire.

At a secret meeting with Howe, Bolton uses spectacles to decipher a letter that identifies Gustavus as an authority at West Point. Bolton volunteers to return to New York to identify James Osborn; Odell grows more suspicious while André remains convinced the mission advanced. Tension mounts as the spy game escalates.

Odell writes a false dispatch from Osborn for Bolton to steal. At another dinner, Sally Cameron pretends to toast the King but warns Bolton about Odell’s trap. She has fallen in love with Bolton and secretly tries to shield him, complicating loyalties.

The British attack on Verplanck is crushed and Bolton is arrested as a Rebel spy. He is saved from hanging by André, who vouches for him after Sally confesses her feelings for Bolton and begs him to defend him. The incident marks a crucial turning point in Bolton’s fate.

Bolton accompanies André to a meeting with Gustavus and Osborn aboard the sloop Vulture, but Gustavus changes the plan and orders André to come alone to a Tory house. Bolton persuades André to go in uniform; Odell detects Bolton, who escapes by swimming to the American garrison.

Bolton realizes that Benedict Arnold is Gustavus and that Osborn is André in civilian clothes. At André’s court-martial, Bolton testifies that André entered the lines in uniform and changed to civilian dress by Arnold’s orders. The court sentences André to be executed as a spy, and André refuses Bolton’s plea for an exchange, choosing his own honor.