 Dutch painter Jan-Van Rooyer (Hardy Kruger)hurries to keep a rendezvous with Jacquleine Cousteau (Micheline Presle), an elegant, sophisticated Frenchwoman, slightly his elder, whose relationship with him had turned from art student into one of love trysts. He arrives and is confronted by Detective Police Inspector Morgan (Stanley Baker)who accuses him of having murdered Jacqueline. Morgan listens sceptically to the dazed denials of Van-Rooyen as he tells the story of his relationship with the murdered woman. Morgan, after hearing the story, realizes that the mystery has deepened and it becomes more complicated when the Assistant Commissioner, Sir Brian Lewis (Robert Flemyng), explains that Jacqueline was not married but was being kept by Sir Howard Fenton , a high-ranking diplomat whose names must be kept out of the case.