THE PHANTOM SPY is set in Europe in the mid-Thirties, the era during which it was written. This isn't a Ruritanian, Graustarkian, comic opera Europe, either. It's the real thing, with the grim threat of Hitler's growing power in Germany looming over everything. In Faust's novel, however, Hitler isn't even the real menace. The true villains are an international cabal of warmongers who think that Hitler isn't moving fast enough and want him to go ahead and invade France right away. To further that end, they've managed to steal the plans for the Maginot Line and intend to present them to Hitler so that Germany can attack France's defensive fortifications at their weakest points. (In reality, the Maginot Line didn't pose much of an obstacle to the Germans a few years later, but Faust had no way of knowing that.) The British Secret Service sets out to steal the plans back before Hitler gets his hands on them, and the agent entrusted with the job is Lady Cecil de Waters, a British noblewoman who has offered her services as a talented amateur' in the espionage game.'
