Inspector Lohmann's eagerly awaited fishing holiday is put on hold when he is called to investigate the murder of a man found in a railway tunnel.

He was an Interpol courier carrying proof of the Chicago Syndicate's planned cooperation with a European criminal organisation in an attache case chained to, but now missing from, his body.

The Inspector gets word from Washington D.C. that a female representative of the Syndicate, Mrs. Pizarro, is currently in Europe to meet up with the European criminals, and that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is sending Special Agent Joe Como to liaise with the German authorities.

In an unsuccessful bid to learn more about the upcoming events, Lohmann meets with Alberto Sandro, an imprisoned member of the European criminal organisation.

Lohmann discovers a book on the charred body of Mrs. Pizarro called The Devil's Anatomy written by Reverend Briefenstein of St. Thomas Church.

Lohmann looks through the book whose thesis is that though the Devil is a spirit, he can manifest himself into doing evil by taking the form of a werewolf, vampire or Dr. Mabuse.

As Lohmann wanders through the church, Joe Como engages in a conversation with Mabuse saying he is really Nick Scappio, the representative of the Chicago Syndicate who is there to negotiate a shipment of a new drug into the United States.