Detective Baldassarre spends his forced exile sorting criminal records. He gets a chance to return to the line of fire when two people, an aristocrat and a worker are struck by lightning inside a fancy mansion. The incident would be relegated to freak accidents, but Baldassare's attention is drawn to the strangeness of the events and he begins to investigate.

Marcello Mastroianni
as Bruno Baldassarre

Agostina Belli
as Teresa Colasanti

Ursula Andress
as Princess Anna Dell'Orso

Peter Ustinov
as Harry Hellman

Jean-Claude Brialy
as Van Nijlen

Mario Scaccia
as Marino Cianciarelli

Gianfranco Barra
as Cantalamessa

Giuseppe Anatrelli
as Carru

Serge Frédéric
as Melzio

Jean-Patrick Junoy
as Alex