In Kurdistan during World War I, Michael Andrews (Cary Grant) is a British officer captured by Kurds, imprisoned, and awaiting execution. The local Turkish commander (Claude Rains) helps Andrews escape and confides that he is a British intelligence officer (initially "Smith," later named as John Stevenson) in disguise. The two set out to warn friendly villagers of a pending Kurdish attack. After a difficult river crossing, and after Andrews flirts with a married tribal woman, Stevenson returns to espionage. Andrews, who has hurt his leg, goes to Cairo for medical treatment. There, Andrews falls in love with his nurse, Rosemary Haydon (Gertrude Michael), who ultimately refuses Andrews by saying she's secretly married to an unnamed man she'd known briefly a few years before.