Norman Foster

Lord Paddington, an honorable member of society, is blown up with a small tennis ball. "Die vier Gerechten" are not of this opinion, however: "Sentenced to death and executed for countless crimes" they leave at the scene. More honorable personalities are being assassinated, while Higgins is still in the dark.

An encounter with a blind man ends unexpectedly for Susan Howard. The supposedly helpless man stuns and kidnaps her. The case is handed over by the Home Secretary to Sir John, the head of Scotland Yard. He entrusts Chief Inspector Higgins and Superintendent Lane with the investigation. Their investigations quickly lead Higgins and Lane on the trail of murder, white slavery and blackmail.

Based on the Béla Bartók opera, Duke Bluebeard reluctantly and gradually uncovers the secrets of his psyche to his fourth wife, Judit, opening the seven doors of his castle to ultimately reveal his still living previous wives, among whom Judit must take her place.

When Sir John Falstaff decides that he wants to have a little fun he writes two letters to a pair of Window wives: Mistress Ford and Mistress Page. When they put their heads together and compare missives, they plan a practical joke or two to teach the knight a lesson. But Mistress Ford's husband is a very jealous man and is pumping Falstaff for information of the affair. Meanwhile the Pages' daughter Anne is besieged by suitors.

Pulled from actual case histories and utilizing newsreel and documented narratives, the activities of spies from various countries are depicted as far back as the American Revolution and as recent as the Cold War.