The primary protagonists in this routine drama are two French journalists, Delmas (Pierre Grasset) and Moreau (Jean-Pierre Melville, the director), and also the city of New York at night. The two journalists are on the trail of a story -- a French diplomat has disappeared from the U.N. for no apparent reason. As they wander through the city tracking down the reason for the disappearance, the journalists eventually discover that the diplomat has met with foul play. Now the two men have a serious disagreement. Delmas wants to take photos of what happened and use them to create sensational headlines and plenty of attention, but Moreau wants them both to cover up what they have found and bury what they know. Given the setting for this tale, both English and French are spoken throughout the film.