When a young woman goes missing in Berlin, her father, an overbearing local official, demands that Private Investigator Gerhard Self tracks her down. But Sweet Afton-smoking, armchair-philosopher 'Self' requires some gentle persusasion if he is to take on the case. In this instance, the persuasion arrives in the form of 5000 marks in cash, delivered in a brown envelope, enclosed with a photrograph of the missing girl.
