Three passengers are traveling in the luxuriously appointed saloon car of an international express train: the famous Czech police inspector Trachta, the industrialist Meyer, who manufactures everything needed to keep warm (fur coats, rum, fireclay bricks), and the factory owner Bierhanzel, a manufacturer of hair-thickening ointment. At the Istanbul station, the trio is joined by the inspector’s protégé, police trainee Jindřich Hlaváček, who is finishing his thesis on train crime. The journey proceeds smoothly until factory owner Bierhanzel is struck by a toothache...