Number Six (Patrick McGoohan) wakes up and finds the Village completely deserted and the water and electricity cut off. Planning to escape, he takes photos of the place, builds a raft, and is on the sea for 25 days. He takes notes as to times and compass headings, but is attacked by gunrunners, who steal his belongings and throw him overboard. He manages to climb back aboard the boat and take control of it but is overwhelmed and ends up on a deserted beach. He meets a small band of Romani who do not understand English.
He avoids a police manhunt and hides on a truck that takes him to London. His old townhouse is occupied by a Mrs. Butterworth (Georgina Cookson) and she is driving his Lotus. She is friendly and sympathetic to his plight, feeds and clothes him. When he mentions that the next day is his birthday (19 March, McGoohan’s real birthday). She offers to bake him a cake. He goes to see his old boss (George Markstein), who is sceptical of his story despite the photographs and other evidence. The Colonel (Donald Sinden) and Thorpe (Patrick Cargill) suspect he had actually defected and is now a double agent but are willing to be convinced.
Aided by military officers (Brian Worth and Richard Caldicot) and a map, he determines that the Village is on the coast of Morocco, southwest of Portugal and Spain, possibly on an island. He guides a jet fighter pilot to the area and sees the Village from the air, but the pilot ejects him from the plane. He parachutes in and is met in his cottage by the new Number Two, who is Mrs. Butterworth. She offers him many happy returns and a cake.
The episode was written by Anthony Skene and directed by Patrick McGoohan under the name of Joseph Serf. It was the last episode that co-creator and script editor George Markstein had a hand in, as creative differences between him and McGoohan had arisen. The entire first act is without dialogue except for a few words in German, and even Number Six says nothing for a good twenty minutes. Some of the footage is from McGoohan’s previous series Danger Man. When Mrs. Butterworth asks his name, he says Peter Smith, though after a suspicious hesitation. The Lotus Seven automobile was available in the U.K. as a kit for less than full price, but it did not come with instructions. Number Six, of course, built his own.
The raft turned out to be rather a dangerous prop. They had to tow it far out to sea so that no land would be visible and a bit of a storm blew up. The raft was dragging down the towing boat and it was becoming swamped with water. Then they discovered that somebody had forgotten the lifejackets. Eventually, they had to cut the raft loose and then phone the Naval authorities to report that they had left a heavy object adrift in the shipping lanes where it might well sink any fair-sized boat running into it. An expensive operation was performed to find it, but no one ever did and it was never seen again.