Alexander de Milja is a cartographer in the Polish military when the country is simultaneously invaded by the Nazis and the Soviets. As the situation rapidly grows worse, he's offered a position in the Polish intelligence services. The other option, if he prefers to fight directly, is to join forces on the front lines and try to hold back either of the invading armies.
de Milja joins the intelligence service. From there, Furst's novel follows the captain through about two years, to the early stages of the Nazis inevitable - yet shocking to the Soviets - invasion of the USSR. De Milja gets a variety of tasks, starting with getting the Polish gold reserve the hell out of Poland. He spends time in France, trying to gain intelligence on when the Nazis intend to try their invasion of England, and later, attempts to help the British waylay that.
Something Furst is careful about is not ascribing too much success to de Milja's efforts. Part of that is the point in World War II when the novel takes place. It would be hard to him to have some smashing breakthrough that entirely stymies the Nazis. In fact, de Milja doesn't seem to do well enough to satisfy his bosses, as he's eventually pulled from one position and put behind a desk. Maybe his best is when he's able to set off a small bomb on a cargo ship, which illuminates it sufficiently the British torpedo bombers can actually see what they're aiming at. His attempt to break a Polish soldier out of a prison is only a half-success. When he gets information that could lead to a precise strike on a critical group of Nazi pilots, the whole thing takes so long to set up it eventually falls apart.
There's a real sense that de Milja is doing his best, but this is not work to which he's suited, and his training seems insufficient. Certainly that's his feeling, but he isn't inclined to just walk away. I'm not entirely sure if he's a patriot, or simply doesn't see anything else to do. Everything else he had is gradually stripped away while he's preoccupied. He can't hold on to any of it, except whatever orders he's given. But that's what situation demands, that Poland use whoever they have, to the best of their abilities. They just have to hope it's enough.
The story doesn't focus solely on de Milja, as he interacts with several other operatives at various levels. Furst uses that as another window into the back-and-forth between countries. How the Nazis try to track down radio transmissions. The way Polish scientists devise bombs that can be attached to trains and set off by the vibrations of traveling over the tracks, making it hard for the Nazis to figure out what they hell is going on. The reasons why the Soviets are so much better at cracking their rings of operatives than the Nazis. I'll confess I don't know how accurate it all is, although it feels as though Furst did his research, but it makes for interesting reading.
Furst has a good knack for turning a phrase. There's a line about Poland have a robust intelligence service, and that this has been a characteristic of small countries with big enemies for a very long time. Another about how the Nazis draw in men like the one whose identity de Milja's using at that moment (Furst is very clear to point out these identities aren't just pulled from the air. They were real people at one point, good or bad). The reader is carried along smoothly.
'De Milja stared at the ceiling above Genya's bed, picked over the evening, decided that he hadn't all that well. I'm a mapmaker, he thought. I can't do these other things, these deceptions. All he'd ever wanted was to show people the way home - now look what he'd become, the world's most completely lost man.'
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