Mr. Pitt is sentenced to death for having strangled a prostitute, but he claims they can't hang him since he is in possession of state secrets concerning the security of the nation and possibly of the world. It's a grand opening of a very hot thriller, and in charge of the investigation with heavy loads of responsibility and under the constantly exacerbated stress of time is inspector Terence Morgan, who admirably succeeds in playing it cool all the way, in spite of gunfights with intents to kill and the threat of death of the key witness. The action is very fast, the dialog is like crossfire all the way, and the plot constantly thickens. Meanwhile, the condemned prisoner is vexed by the police officers and guards who disturb him while he is listening to piano music. The realism is convincing enough, the Poles even speak Polish (which is not translated), and the story is well contrived under the circumstances of the case of Klaus Fuchs (mentioned once) and the extreme most paranoid secrecy around the development of the absurdity of the terror balance.