Martin thought that his new job as nightwatchman in the hospital mortuary would give him plenty of time to study, but things work out different. His best friend Jens has devised a new ‘jeu sans frontières’. They challenge each other and the loser has to surrender his freedom, get married and accept a bourgeois lifestyle. Through this apparently innocuous game, Martin becomes involved in a series of sexual murders. His superstition and the many hours he spends alone among the corpses make Martin start to doubt his own sanity, as a series of carefully planned ‘coincidental’ events, make him the obvious suspect. Inspector Wörmer, whom Martin comes to trust, explains that when a serial killer stops killing, a scapegoat is needed to take the blame and Martin, it seems, is the perfect candidate. But gradually it becomes obvious to Martin who exactly is deliberately making him look guilty.
