Joe Sandilands has been dispatched to France to stay as the guest of a glamorous French war-widow who is determined that Joe should support her claim that a mysterious shell-shocked soldier is her husband. The problem is that four other claimants have identified him differently. Joe decides to investigate the four claimants and picks his way through a tangle of lies, deceit and manipulation, uncovering a cleverly concealed murder committed during the war years. When he finally discovers the identity of the soldier, he faces an even greater dilemma: he must not only try to solve a killing in the past, but avert a tragedy in the future.