Vilhelm Thygesen’s old friend from his days on the Oslo police force, the retired Harry Schreiner, presents an offer to Thygesen. He has got new information about the brutal murder on his half brother, an old navy serviceman in New York, a case that was never fully solved. There are indications that he may have been in possession of a suitcase containing as much as half a million dollars. But where is the suitcase now?

If Thygesen can find the suitcase, he gets to keep half of its contents. So he flies to New York, the stronghold of capitalism, where he explores the city’s most fascinating and repulsive sides – through back alleys in Bronx and Brooklyn, night clubs, the NY police department, the beggar community and the Norwegian seamen’s church.