Storyline: The American writer Andrew Craig, an alcoholic and an unrepentant womanizer, wins the Nobel Prize for literature, despite his creative streak having been exhausted some time ago; Having arrived in Stockholm to receive the award, he is joined by Lisa, a beautiful employee of the Swedish Foreign Ministry, who will accompany him on official occasions.
The same evening of his arrival, Craig meets Professor Stratman, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics, a German exile who has carried out his activity in the United States; some KGB officials asked Stratman to return to East Germany and renounce the prize, but the physicist refuses and is kidnapped with the consent of his niece Emily.
The next day, during the press conference, Craig notices that Stratman has different attitudes compared to those of their meeting the previous evening. After revealing to the world press the interruption of his writing activity, he sends a veiled message about his suspicions. These are collected by a certain Lindblom, who invites him to go immediately to his house but, when Craig arrives there, he finds him dying and shortly afterwards he is thrown into the sea from the attic of a building where he had followed the murderer.