One day, Tim (Roy Ward) stops to speak with one of those men with no apparent income and no apparent place of residence who can be seen on the streets of Amsterdam and who are ready to speak of profundities and mock-profundities at the drop of a hat. This particular man tells him that "people don't die, they get killed." For some reason, this strikes the lonely television repairman as profound. He has been building a ham radio at home out of spare parts so that he will have someone to talk to. Shortly after talking to the street person, his circle of friends is diminished by one when his friend Alex is reported to have killed himself. This in itself is a bit of a mystery, and Tim attempts to make sense of it by talking to a lawyer, Alex's girlfriend, and others.

El protagonista es un holandés llamado Tim, que fabrica radios y que se encuentra con un extraño personaje en el tren que lo convence de que “la gente no muere, es matada”. Tim tiene un amigo italiano, Alex (Agresti), que le cuenta que se va a casar. Tim lo defrauda, celoso y obtuso, diciéndole que está loco, provocando el suicidio del amigo. El holandés inicia investiga la muerte de su amigo basándose en lo que le dijo el extraño del tren.