Alice Mancini, the young German wife of the Italian ambassador in Berlin, Mario Mancini, unexpectedly meets her husband's younger brother Vittorio who is presumed dead. Vittorio makes several mysterious references to the fate of Mario's first wife Alma, who apparently committed suicide ten years previously. Her curiosity aroused, Alice starts doing some research - but gets no answers either from her husband or his family. Several warnings later, when Alice still won't stop digging up the past , she suddenly finds herself the subject of an evil and complex intrigue: she is suspected of murder, and is forced to flee.