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, including his photograph, are in many of the newspapers
throughout Great Britain.
In reality, the woman picked Hannay up at the Mr. Memory show at
which they both attended, she telling him that there were two men
there who 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 in an
effort 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 has part of
his pinky finger missing and something called the 53 steps.
As Hannay is on his journey of discovery all the while trying to
elude both the police and the real murderers, he is forced out of
circumstances outside of his control to take along a feisty young
woman named Pamela whose continued belligerence toward him is
despite her precarious situation