Narrating in the form of a bildungsroman,[1] an elderly man, Stefan Weitzler, reminisces about his life during the Second World War as he wanders down the now modernised London cul-de-sac that he once called home.

As the two boys spy on Mrs. Hayward from a hiding place in the hedges, they notice her unusual daily routine: leaving Keith's house with a picnic basket full of food, tapping on the window of Auntie Dee (Mrs. Hayward's sister, next-door-neighbour and best friend, whose husband, Uncle Peter, is away in the RAF), and walking through to the end of the cul-de-sac where she disappears into the nearby town.

When snooping in Keith's mother's room, they find her diary which contains a small 'x' marked on a day of every month (in reference to her menstrual cycle).

The next day, when Keith is doing homework, Mrs. Hayward visits Stephen in his hiding place in the bushes and tells him that she knows he is following her, and that he should stop now before he gets hurt.

Stephen discovers the tramp is dying while taking eggs and milk to him, and is asked to give a silk map to Mrs. Hayward to show the man's love for her.

Fifty years later, Stephen ties up the loose ends, explaining that the vagabond was in fact Uncle Peter who had gone AWOL and was carrying out an affair with Keith's mother while dying from war wounds.

[5] Once published, Spies went on to win the 2002 Whitbread Novel of the year for achievement in literary excellence, and the 2002 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic literature.