Summary

Code Name Verity tells the story of a fictional espionage mission conducted by the British in Nazi occupied France during World War Two. The story is communicated through the contrasting perspectives of two young women who are best friends: Julia Beaufort-Stuart, a spy, and Maddie Brodatt, a pilot.

Part 1 – “Verity” – consists of a document written by an unnamed woman, being held prisoner in the Gestapo headquarters of a French town called Ormaie. The narrator introduces herself by proclaiming that she is a coward and that she has revealed a series of wireless codes to the Nazis after being captured in Ormaie while on a secret mission for the British.

She has made a deal with the Nazi in charge at the prison - a man named von Linden - that she will write down everything she knows about the British war...