1914. Colonel von Haukwitz dies under mysterious circumstances during an occult séance. His fiancée, actress Klára Knabelová, discovers during the investigation that the head, hands, and heart were removed from the body after death. In her search for answers to this mystery, she encounters the colonel's closest associate, Lieutenant Heinrich Roth, and fate brings them together. Military investigator Karel Vrana tries to persuade Klára to cooperate against Roth and occult circles within the army. Klára refuses, but expresses her support for Vrana's goal of finding the stolen parts of the colonel's body. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Roth is called to the battlefield of World War I, and Vrana sets out across Europe to search for von Haukwitz's remains, which are being used by occult groups. Klára moves to her family farm in Moravia, where she receives another part of the body—the hand of the wounded Lieutenant Roth.