The movie is about a reporter who concocts a false case so as to get himself convicted for first degree murder so that he can prove that the death sentence can be given based on circumstantial evidence and that it be done away with. However, by the time he is out of the prison proving his innocence, his father is falsely arrested in another murder case and is awarded a death penalty!
Abel Hradscheck, the owner of an inn in the Oderbruch country, faces financial ruin. For this state of affairs, Ursula, his wife and former actress, is by no means free of blame.
Don Serafin has a complex: to all the beautiful women always seen with a beard. To remove the complex and try to cure him, his friends will lead to Biarritz.
Sam and Buddy, two highway robbers, join with Colonel Quint, a big crook, who sold his services to Morgan, the banker, in order to free Baby, the banker's daughter, abducted by Espartero and his killers gang.
Sandro, a detective, finds his wife strangled. His girl-friend Tiffany, who works as photographer, makes a "Blow up" from a photo, what Sandro finds beside the victim.
The innkeeper Barnabáš and the teacher Isidor Slovíčko succumb to the lure of old Moreles, to whom the young Taussig sends enthusiastic letters from America.
Paris, 1888. With the help of forensic medicine, a sensational criminal case is uncovered. The chief of the Paris Sûreté, Inspector Goron, with the help of Lyon University Professor Lacassagne, is able to solve a capital crime that seemed unsolvable according to the methods of forensic science at the time.