When two ships belonging to financier Curt Valayan are lost at sea, private investigator Richard Cutting is hired by an insurance underwriting firm to look into possible fraud. Traveling to Switzerland to investigate the wreckage of a small plane supposedly containing the body of Walter Green, an employee of Valayan's, Cutting meets Matt Wilson, Valayan's top aide. After learning that a man walked away from the crash and took a taxi to Zurich, Cutting tracks down Green's secretary, Dominique Laurant, and asks her to arrange a meeting for him with Green. Although Green confesses that he personally sabotaged the two ships and is willing to sign sworn documents to that effect, he is murdered before he can do so by a powerful gunman known only as the Big Man. Disappointed by Cutting's apparent failure, Dominique sets herself up as a "patsy" for the killers by boldly telling Wilson that she has Green's signed confession. This gives Cutting the idea to bribe a notary to sign some documents and date them prior to Green's death. Once this act is accomplished, he returns to Dominique's hotel and discovers that she has been strangled by the Big Man. Determined to avenge her death, Cutting arranges a meeting with Valayan and warns him that unless he returns the insurance money the underwriting firm will plant a phony news story about his oil holdings. After thwarting an attempt on his own life by pushing the Big Man to his death from a balcony, Cutting returns to Valayan's chalet and persuades him that the planted news story is actually true: Green's documents prove that the doublecrossing Wilson has made a deal with a Middle Eastern country to take over Valayan's oil interests. Once the enraged Valayan has turned on Wilson and killed him, Cutting retracts his offer to hand over the Green documents. As Cutting leaves, Police Inspector Ruff arrives in time to find Wilson's murdered body lying in the center of Valayan's living room.
