The Salzburg Connection

Richard Bryant dives into Finstersee and retrieves a heavy chest. He is confronted by two local men who demand to know where the chest is. When Bryant refuses to answer, the younger man strikes him, causing him to fall and strike his head on a rock.

US lawyer Bill Mathison, on holiday in Europe, visits Bryant's photo shop in Salzburg to ask about a book of Austrian mountain lakes, acting for publisher James Newhart. Anna Bryant hands Bill correspondence from Eric Yates and a countersigned cheque for the illustrated book.

Felix Zauner informs Johann Kronsteiner that Bryant has died. Johann travels to an inn near Finstersee to identify the body, where Grell—the inn's landlord and the elder of the two men who confronted Bryant earlier—appears.

Mathison notices he is being tailed through Salzburg and shakes off the pursuers by taking a hackney. At the Hohensalzburg Fortress, he meets the young American Elissa Lang, who is later revealed to be a double agent working for Zauner and for the Russians via Lev Benedescu.

Elissa breaks into Bryant's shuttered photo shop and steals the photographs from Finstersee, along with Bryant's correspondence with Yates. Her actions reveal her role in gathering intelligence connected to the chest and the larger espionage plot surrounding it.

Bill and Anna return to the shop and find someone inside. Elissa flees, but Bill pursues her. In a side alley, Elissa overpowers and kills a stranger who confronts her, later identified as Bernard Dietrich, Zauner's deputy.

At Finstersee, Johann is followed by two neo-Nazis, including Anton, Bryant's killer. He discovers the chest at the forest's edge and escapes its pursuers, then hides the box at the home of his girlfriend Trudi Seidl.

Bill takes the distraught Anna to his hotel for safety. The following morning, Johann reports that he has found and secured the box and notes that an Israeli had come to see him offering to buy Bryant's chest, signaling its high value and danger.

Bill meets CIA agent Chuck, who explains that Yates had been a double agent. On the way to their meeting, Bill is again followed by the moustachioed man; Chuck has him shot on a chair lift by an assassin. Chuck clarifies that the dead man was a Polish spy working for the Chinese and outlines why the CIA wants the chest and whom it could compromise.

It gradually emerges that the chest contains documents listing former Nazis who are still active or being used by Western intelligence services. The Russians have recently discovered a similar chest in Czechoslovakia, increasing the stakes for control of the information.

The neo-Nazis ambush Johann at the Finstersee area and kidnap him in search of the chest. Anna and Bill worry about his safety and plan to locate Trudi to help recover the box.

Elissa arrives at the inn with Grell’s neo-Nazis and Pretends to be Anna on the phone to lure Johann. He reveals the chest’s location and where he is being held, feeding the conspirators with critical information.

Trudi hands over the coveted chest to Chuck and Zauner. Elissa and the Neo-Nazis arrive, followed by Zauner; Elissa attaches a bomb to the chest, and it detonates sooner than expected, killing Elissa.

Zauner explains that his name is on one of the Nazi lists and that the KGB had been blackmailing him. He is shot dead by Anton during the confrontation; Bill disarms the remaining neo-Nazis and rescues Johann.

With Johann rescued, Bill and Anna leave Salzburg together, driving Zauner's Porsche as they escape the danger surrounding the Finstersee find. The trio depart Europe, having exposed the conspiracy and saved themselves.