A peaceful moonlight drive in the English countryside is interrupted when Simon Templar and Patricia Holm listen to a disturbing radio broadcast from France by a would-be dictator who plans to make France the latest in a growing number of European dictatorships under a ruling party called the Sons of France. This broadcast disturbs Patricia, and Templar makes a dire (and, as events were to unfold in real life in the next few years, accurate) prediction that the future of Europe will be one of invasions and concentration camps.

The two adventurers are interrupted in their worries when they spot a house on fire in the distance. Rushing to help, Templar enters the burning building but is unable to rescue a man trapped inside. Later, he and Patricia learn that one of the occupants of the house is a known war profiteer who is expected to make millions off both sides should a new European war erupt.