During a dinner party at her family home
in Paris, Marianne Jannetier is warned by her politician fiancé
Andre Benoit, that the city is about to be overtaken by the Germans,
and that she and her mother must make their way immediately to
Bordeaux. Along with hundreds of others that night, Marianne
and her mother evacuate Paris, but are caught in a German bombing
raid. Marianne's mother dies of a heart attack, so the
distraught young woman decides to return alone to her Parisian home.
Meanwhile, a young German pilot,
unwilling to kill innocent French women and children with his bombs,
abandons his plane and parachutes into France. The German
soldier is mistaken for a British flyer by Lt. Nicholas
Jordan, a Texan flying for the British Royal Air Force, and his
British gunner, Bruce McAvoy. Nick takes the young German
prisoner, but is later forced to land his plane in the French
countryside. In the meantime, the British are compelled to
evacuate France, with Nick and McAvoy being inadvertently left
behind. Marianne returns to Paris to find that a French
underground meeting is being held in her home as German soldiers
march into the city.
She joins the underground, and is sent
to work as a pianist at La Coquine, a waterfront café, where she
sends coded radio messages through the piano. In the meantime,
Nick and McAvoy discover a German air fleet hidden in some stacks of
hay. They set fire to the bales, which signals a British
aerial attack. McAvoy is killed, however, as the two attempt
their escape. At the same time, Gestapo agents trace
short-wave radio messages to La Coquine, so their commander,
Hauptman Schwabe, goes there to investigate.
Nick arrives at the café a short time
later, and he immediately comes under Schwabe's suspicion. The
Gestapo officer, rather than arresting everyone, decides to keep the
café and Nick under close observation. While Marianne wants to
help Nick, both bartender Mouche and café proprietor Colette suspect
him of being a double agent. The next morning, the head of
their underground unit, Professor Marceau, orders the café workers
to turn Nick over to the Germans. Just as the Gestapo arrives,
however, Marianne realizes that Nick is really an American and hides
him, and then the two are taken prisoner by Marceau. After
being questioned by the chief of the underground, Marianne learns
that Andre is now a high-ranking Nazi sympathizer within the Vichy
government, and she is ordered to spy on her ex-fiancée.
While Andre and Marianne are reunited in
a hotel suite, Schwabe arrives and demands Andre's secret papers.
When the French politician refuses, Schwabe insists on leaving his
counterfeit papers behind, as a "mouse trap" in case Marianne is
truly a spy. Later that night, Marianne falls for the "bait,"
and she is discovered by Andre, who then defends his association
with the Nazis in hopes of convincing her to join him. When he
threatens to turn her over to the Gestapo if she refuses, Marianne
kills Andre with his own gun. As she makes her escape, a
captured Nick is interrogated by Schwabe, who then learns of Andre's
assassination.
Unable to gain admittance to underground
headquarters, Marianne goes back to La Coquine, where she is met by
the just-escaped Nick. As the Gestapo surrounds the café,
Marianne sends a message to London requesting assistance. A
British commando unit is then sent to the Paris waterfront in a
captured German transport. They arrive at the café just as
Schwabe and his men are placing Marianne and the others under
arrest. Marianne, Nick and the other underground agents, along
with the captured German officers, then board the seaplane and fly
back to London and freedom.