Character Relationship Map: Orders to Kill

Characters

• Gene Summers (played by Paul Massie) — supporting

  Protagonist and USAAF ex-bombardier tasked with assassinating suspected double agent Marcel Lafitte in Nazi-occupied Paris. After witnessing Lafitte's gentle nature and killing him, Summers is consume...

• Léonie (played by Irene Worth) — supporting

  Paris-based Resistance contact and dressmaker who supplies Summers with identity documents. She firmly rebukes his doubts about the mission, but is later captured and executed by the Nazis, deepening...

• Lafitte (played by Leslie French) — supporting

  Gentle and family-oriented French Resistance worker suspected of being a Nazi double agent. Actually innocent, he is brutally killed by Summers despite saving the protagonist from German troops. His d...

Canonical Relationships

Family, romantic, and professional connections based on plot evidence.

• Gene Summers → Léonie (Professional Mission Contact) — Léonie is Summers's operational contact in Paris.

  After reaching Paris, Summers meets Léonie, his Resistance contact and a dressmaker.

Story Dynamics

Alliances, conflicts, and narrative interactions that evolve throughout the story.

• Léonie → Lafitte (Alliance Resistance Associate) — Both belong to the Resistance network described in the plot.

  Léonie is identified as a French Resistance contact, while Lafitte is described as a French Resistance worker.

• Gene Summers → Lafitte (Conflict Assassin And Target) — Their mission-defined opposition drives the central conflict.

  Gene Summers is assigned to assassinate Lafitte, who is suspected of being a double agent in the French Resistance.

Story Analysis

A soldier obeys a mistaken assassination order, confronts unbearable guilt, and seeks moral restitution after discovering the victim was innocent.

Plot Progression

1. Orders Across the Channel — Gene Summers receives orders to kill suspected double agent Lafitte, visits Boston, trains in England, and enters occupied France. The mission begins as a matter of military duty.
2. Doubt in Occupied Paris — Summers meets Léonie, receives identity cards, and encounters Lafitte in Paris. Lafitte's kindness and protection make the assigned assassination morally uncertain.
3. The Fatal Assignment — Léonie urges Summers to trust the order, so he returns to Lafitte's office. The attempted killing becomes a panicked stabbing after Lafitte asks why.
4. Guilt After Liberation — Summers escapes, hides the stolen money, and learns that Léonie has been captured. He later descends into alcoholism and recovers in a military hospital.
5. Truth and Restitution — The Army's justification fails to satisfy Summers, who discovers that Lafitte was innocent. He visits Lafitte's family, praises him, and gives them his back pay.