They Met in the Dark

Heritage is dismissed from the Royal Navy during the Second World War after being found guilty of losing top secret documents. With his career ruined, he begins revisiting the recent days and the women linked to them.

He starts with Mary, a manicurist in Blackpool, meeting at the Hotel Monopole. She invites a later meeting at the Bell & Dragon, but she isn’t there and he is sent to a remote cottage up the road.

A young Canadian woman, Miss Verity, arrives at the cottage and discovers Mary dead, clutching a note that reads 'Child's Theatrical Agency.' Miss Verity barricades the door when Heritage knocks and he leaves.

Miss Verity has seen Heritage’s face; the next day she takes a bus to Blackpool and reports the murder to the police. Heritage follows her to the police station, drawn into the investigation.

Back at the cottage with the police, the body is missing and Miss Verity is threatened with charges of filing a false police report. The case grows more tangled as investigators search for Mary.

Heritage and Miss Verity travel to London, visiting Child's Theatrical Agency and the BBC. Heritage brings a sophisticated singer who is there for an audition, then wanders off while the Canadian woman follows.

On the train north to Liverpool, where Child runs a dance academy, Miss Verity is interrogated by enemy agents. An agent fires at her in the dark inside a tunnel but she escapes, a handbag is stolen, and Heritage rescues her at the barrier when she tries to leave without a ticket.

Child and his hypnotist the Great Riccardo arrive in Liverpool and hypnotize a Royal Navy petty officer into revealing secret plans about HMS Dandelion. They intend to hypnotize Miss Verity to uncover what she knows.

In a bar, Heritage’s former batman Mansel starts a fight to create a diversion, and Heritage uses the distraction to rescue Miss Verity from the hypnotist.

Carter sends a woman named Bobby to chat with Commander Lippinscott. The harmonica player plays a coded message hidden in the notes of the music, signaling ongoing manipulation.

Lippinscott and Heritage join forces, appearing to be pawns in a larger game to trap the traitors. Their partnership signals a turning point as both sides seem to pursue the same objective.

In the morning, Bobby leaves with Lippinscott in a car as the spies head into their hotel bedroom. The hotel becomes a focal point for the final moves of the plot.

Miss Verity tails one spy by hiding in the back of his car and is then pursued by Mansel and the police. Meanwhile Riccardo tries to burn and bury Mary’s body in his garden scarecrow, hoping to dispose of the evidence.

Back in the hotel, disguised experts decode the musical notation from the harmonica, proving the plot. Carter and Dr Benson perform a magic act and momentarily steal the message, while Heritage takes the stage to expose the scam; police surround the room as he and Miss Verity share a kiss.