A mysterious necktie murderer who's already struck several times suddenly strikes again one evening at a run-down cinema in a suburb of Vienna. The proprietress, Hermine H. discovers the corpse of an old man after the showing. Together with her friend Schorsch, the head waiter of the café she regularly patronizes, she makes plans to get rid of the body as unobtrusively as possible, fearing that it could jeopardise her cinema and herself as well, as she knew the victim and was in debt to him. However, just as the pair are about to do the deed, they discover the corpse has disappeared. Now Lotte, a hairdresser who dispenses other favours as well, and Wurli, her jealous cab-driver husband, together with a strange young man called Gabriel - all three also regular patrons of Café Sperlhof - appear on the scene. Each of the protagonists falls increasingly under suspicion as the dark sides of their characters are revealed. Worse is to come: the regular café patrons start suspecting each other of having committed the crime.