Howland Weston Witherell is a debonair well-to-do American, who finds himself in Vienna undergoing psychological counselling after a howler of a sailing accident takes the life of his best friend. Enrolling himself as a patient in the clinic of the famed psychoanalyst Dr. Birnbaum, Witherell also becomes a regular at the Café Sisi, a watering hole for the foreign correspondents in Vienna to trade stories, scoops, and alcoholic spirits. On an uneventful morning, the police in the village of Grinzing discover the smouldering remains of a car, with the driver burnt to cinders. The cops are aghast to find out that the unfortunate victim who had driven his automobile off a bend on the tricky Cobenzl terrain, is none other than Howland Witherell. A suicide note addressed to his girlfriend back home, and left behind at his lodgings in Vienna, confirms the finding of the Grinzing police. Aspiring foreign correspondent Esme Carmichael, however, believes that there is much more than what meets the eye in the supposed suicide of Witherell. Determined to investigate further, she requests historian Archie Laverick to assist her on her impetuous endeavour, by accompanying her to Austria. Archie after much persuasion decides to indulge Esme and, in the process, expedite his ongoing work of a biography of Prince Eugene.