Brett works at the embassy for Ambassador Sir Samuel Hoare, an arrogant bully and Alan Hillgarth, the clever cunning chief of intelligence.

In a twist of fate, Sandy Forsyth's girlfriend, Barbara Clare, is a former lover of another school friend, Bernie Piper, a communist member of the International Brigades missing since the Battle of Jarama in 1937.

Due to Spain's policy of national self-sufficiency and lack of gold, the mine could be of significant importance to the Franco regime.

Meanwhile, Barbara meets Luis, an unemployed Nationalist Spain veteran, who tells her that Bernie is still alive and is being held in a brutal military prison near Cuenca.

Forsyth, betrayed to learn Harry had been spying on him, reveals that his claims of discovering gold are false and the mine was a sham built to scam investors.

They manage to get back to Britain, but Harry is blacklisted by Hoare as punishment for causing a major diplomatic incident.

Both are nursing private heartache over losing their one true loves, Harry over Sofia and Barbara over Bernie, who died during the 1944 D-Day landings.