Murder in the Central Committee

During a Madrid Central Committee meeting of Spain's Communist Party, a brief power outage plunges the room into darkness. When the lights return, Garrido is found stabbed to the chest, dead. The government tasks Fonseca with leading the inquiry, and Santos brings in Pepe Carvalho to take on the case.

Carvalho arrives in Madrid from Barcelona to take on the case. Carmela, a militant communist, is assigned to drive him. Carvalho and Fonseca instinctively clash due to their past persecution of leftists, so their investigations proceed in parallel.

Fonseca begins a party-internal investigation and quickly narrows the suspects to five: Sepúlveda, Esparza Julvé, Pérez Montesa, Leverder, and Ordoñez. Carvalho pursues a separate line of inquiry, following different leads. The clock is ticking as the night unfolds.

Carvalho interviews the elderly former CIA chief, who is severely handicapped from Vietnam. The interview yields little usable information as the man refuses to cooperate, highlighting the friction between intelligence services and limited willingness to share.

Sepúlveda posits that the killer used cigarette smoke to locate Garrido in the darkness. Santos counters that Garrido was not smoking, challenging that theory and forcing the investigators to re-examine clues.

Carvalho studies Garrido's last photograph and the items he carried, discovering a harmonica insignia on Garrido's lapel that could guide the killer through darkness. The clue narrows the field to a handful of suspects.

Esparza Julvé, protégé of Garrido and Santos, is financially desperate. During a trip to Germany, CIA agents recruit him to kill Garrido for money.

While tailing Leverder to a public reading, Carvalho is seduced by a journalist, a trap set by CIA operatives. He is drugged and beaten, and the captors gain nothing substantial from him about the case.

After being released by his captors, Carvalho returns to his hotel room to find a central European female agent from the KGB waiting for him. She is eager to use him to uncover the culprit, and their flirtatious tension complicates the investigation.

Carvalho confronts Esparza Julvé and compels him to reveal the killer's name. In fear, Esparza swallows bullets and whispers the name to Carvalho, sealing the identity of Garrido's killer.

At a new Central Committee gathering, Esparza Julvé is exposed as Garrido's killer and is discarded by the party. He tries to leave, but is killed at the doorway by those who had hired him to assassinate Garrido.

In a subsequent meeting, the Communist Party publicly distances itself from Esparza Julvé and confirms his culpability in Garrido's murder, consolidating the party's stance on the affair.

With the case resolved, Carvalho heads to the airport, driven by Carmela. His mission is accomplished, and he leaves Spain amid the continuing shadows of international intrigue.