Plot summary

Richard Hannay is on the run from the police, who suspect him of murdering the woman found stabbed to death in his London flat. This story and his photograph are in many of the newspapers throughout Great Britain. In reality, the woman picked Hannay up at the Mr. Memory show, telling him that two men were trying to kill her in an effort to obtain information which would breach national security. Hannay is not only on the run from police but is also trying to find out the nature of the potential national security breach to clear his name. All he knows from the dead woman is that it has something to do with a man in a small town in Scotland, another man who's missing part of his pinky finger, and "The 39 Steps." On this perilous journey of discovery he's forced to take along a feisty young woman named Pamela who is endlessly belligerent towards him despite her precarious situation.—Huggo