Raven, a hired killer with a scarred lip and a bitter outlook, carries out a job in London and then discovers he has been cheated by those who paid him. Determined to find them, he travels north while the police close in. On the way he crosses paths with a young woman who becomes entangled in his flight. Greene called it an entertainment, and it is a swift thriller set in a Britain nervously aware of coming war, with unexpected sympathy for its hunted figure.