As World War II draws to a close, Commando Major Harry Curtis has returned to England to fame and fortune. But after his marriage sours, he's only too happy to be given the most dangerous assignment of his career. He survives with the help of an Austrian woman, Jutta Hulin, but she disappears after he reaches safety. Seconded to Malaysia in 1950 to help the Malay Scouts and the SAS in combatting the communist insurgency. Events are complicated when he finds Jutta Hulin -- the woman who had saved his life at the end of World War II -- in an ambivalent position vis-a-vis the insurgents.