The end of WWII has brought much hardship to Western Europe, especially in the area of food security and availability. The war has wiped out much of Europe's ability to grow its own food - it, as a continent, was close to being self sufficient during peace times - or to distribute what can be grown internally. In cities, there are long line ups at the few places where food is available, and a growing black market for food for those who can afford it. Much of the food growing regions of the southern hemisphere are also having problems growing enough to feed their own due to natural disasters. That leaves the United States and Canada as the only major food growing nations to assist its war time allies of Europe through this crisis while Europe rebuilds.
A female hitchiker is taken in by a family after a horrible car accident. While she recovers, she begins to unravel a murder mystery involving the woman of the house.
The two drivers Giovanni and Gaetano are friends. Gaetano, bold and ruthless, thrives in the black market, while Giovanni, who is a naive and fundamentally honest worker from the North of Italy, cannot get any profit and his wife, an energetic and talkative Roman woman, can't help blaming him for his poor business skills.
Head over heels in love with a stern and cold older businessman's young wife, a reporter is seduced into conspiring to murder him so she can inherit his estate, while pinning the murder on another businessman.
