Plot Summary

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.