Hotel detective Janos Kovacs travels from San Remo, where the Schlagerfestival will soon be held, to London. He wants to sell critical information to the crime reporter Barney Blair. Before Barney arrives, Kovacs is stabbed.
The painter Edgar flees from Wittenberg to East Berlin. The rebel finds a shelter in a gazebo. On the loo, Edgar discovers a strange reading: "The Sorrows of Young Werther" by Goethe.