In wartime Denmark, Martin Slade was a saboteur, then, in post-war Europe - a smuggler. Now, burying his past - he's a respectable journalist - going back to Denmark to cover a music festival. When he's approached by his old flame, Birgitte Holtesen, he spurns her and she, instead, ensnares an English musician, Sean Clifford. Returning home to England, Martin is attacked in his flat, which has been ransacked. Then he learns that Clifford has been murdered - and his body horribly mutilated ...