May 1941. At four in the morning a rust-streaked tramp freighter steams up the Tagus river to dock at the port of Lisbon. She is the Santa Rosa flies the flag of neutral Spain & is in Lisbon to load cork oak tinned sardines & drums of cooking oil bound for the Baltic port of Malmo. But she is not the Santa Rosa. She is the Noordendam a Dutch freighter under the command of Captain Eric De Haan. She sails for the intelligence division of the British Royal Navy & is involved in a secret mission. On board are a Polish engineer & British spy Spaniards who fought for Franco & Germans who fought against Hitler. For them this is a last desperate flight to freedom.