Evelyn 'Evie' Ainsworth is an agent of MI6.
The time period of her activities with that British intelligence organization starts in 1938 when Hitler begins his expansion plans having just taken over Austria and making demands for the 'return' of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. Even as English Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was willing to make concessions to the German leader to ensure peace, many are certain that war was inevitable. One of those so believing is Ainsworth.
When we meet her briefly the first time, it is 1930 and she is 12 years old and living with her father in Hong Kong, sneaking away at times to explore the city and improve her Cantonese. Leap ahead to 1936 and the 18-year-old might be looking forward to returning to England but not the coming-out party her mother has planned. She has been struggling to learn Russian but takes pride in having become adept at the martial arts of Kung Fu, or Wing Chun to her. And then another quick jump to 1938 to watch her enjoying a visit in Paris even as she becomes certain that war with Germany was now inevitable and she is frustrated that while her older brother had already joined the RAR to fly fighters, she was not doing her part. She would change that last.
Her fun-living days quickly get shoved behind her as the terrors and horrors of war present themselves and Ainsworth finds something surprising about herself - she is actually pretty good at what it takes to be an undercover operative and, if she would admit it to herself, she enjoyed it.