A rainy, nasty night in Manhattan. A taxi lurches to the curb, a door flies open, and a body tumbles into the gutter. The man, badly beaten but alive, tells an oddly unconvincing story of mistaken identity, before clamming up completely. The next day a man of similar build is fished from the East River, and inspector Schmidt is off on a most curious case, in which the corpse makes phone calls and even the killer is scared to death.