Overview

The American pleasure steamer S. S. Imperial is in South American waters. On board is Erich Jagendorf, a German espionage agent in search of Charles Locke, a British spy who has eluded the Germans for months. Jagendorf radios a Nazi submarine and just as he is about to divulge the spy's identity to the U-Boat, he is murdered. The submarine commander, Herr Von Stumm, boards the vessel not only to find out who killed Jagendorf but to find Charles Locke. But no one on board is named Charles Locke. Von Stumm, certain that Locke is a woman, narrows down the suspects to nine women. With the U-boat commander on board, danger follows danger. Through numerous plot complications the characters' secrets unravel, some comic, some tragic. The play moves to a smashing second act ending, and it is only in the last few moments of the third act that the slayer's identity is trickily exposed.