The conflict of a German man, Robert, who worked during the war for U.S Intelligence and now has been drawn back to his country to be honoured by his old University.
Paris 1900. Sharing a house in the Bohemian District are Roberto, a fledgling Musician, who is composing an Opera with his friend the poet Victor Duval; and the beautiful Cossette, daughter of a retired tenor, who goes up and down the stairs, taking advantage of Roberto's music to train her voice.
Joe Buck is a wide-eyed hustler from Texas hoping to score big with wealthy New York City women; he finds a companion in Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo, an ailing swindler with a bum leg and a quixotic fantasy of escaping to Florida.
Dr. Roth, a respected veterinarian and head of a state-owned stud farm, had accepted papers from a man for safekeeping when he was 16 years old, toward the end of the war.