It was the second of three books describing his wartime experience in the French section of the Special Operations Executive in which he was infiltrated four times into occupied France and spent 225 days behind enemy lines before he was captured.
[2] In November 1942 Germany occupied the southern zone of France and it became to too dangerous to continue living and working in the French Riviera and Churchill relocated the Spindle network to St Jorioz, on the shore of Lake Annecy.
Difficulties flared up in the leadership of the CARTE network, and its leader, André Girard, and Churchill were ordered to fly to the UK for talks, but a succession of pickup attempts by the RAF failed.
[2] On 15 April 1943 Churchill was then parachuted back to St Jorioz where he was met by Odette Sansom, but they were both arrested the following day by Abwehr spycatcher, Hugo Bleicher.
[2] In The Spirit in the Cage, the last book of this trilogy, Churchill describes his captivity and subsequent liberation at the end of the war, and also the terrible torture endured by Odette.