Amazon.com description: Product Description: The Thirty-Nine Steps is a classic espionage novel that has inspired at least four film adaptations, including one by Alfred Hitchcock. Just before the outbreak of WWI, Richard Hannay is let in on a German plot to assassinate the Greek premier in England and steal British war plans by an American spy, who is subsequently murdered in Hannay's apartment. What follows is a breathtaking tale of flight and evasion, as Hannay avoids one danger after another, trying to avoid both the German spies and the police in order to save England from a murderous plot. The plot became the model for all of the classic "man on the run" adventures produced in Hollywood to the present day.