An out-of-work pulp fiction novelist, Holly Martins, arrives in a post-war Vienna divided into sectors by the victorious allies, where a shortage of supplies has led to a flourishing black market. He arrives at the invitation of an ex-school friend, Harry Lime, who has offered him a job, only to discover that Lime has recently died in a peculiar traffic accident. From talking to Lime's friends and associates, Martins soon notices that some of the stories are inconsistent and determines to discover what really happened to Harry Lime.—Mark Thompson