Joachim West is so unsuccessful as a writer that in order to escape his financial troubles he stages his own disappearance. But only after sending his magnus opus - on which he had worked for the past ten years - to his publisher. Assuming him dead, she sees the masterpiece as the perfect answer to a predicament - her star author, Fabian Remarque, is struck by writer's block. So she decides to publish Joachim's manuscript under Fabian's name.