In Europe, days after VE Day, General Patton (Kennedy), orders that gold reserves held by the former Reichsbank be transported to Frankfurt, but before the shipment arrives in the city, the gold train is robbed and its 59 Military Police Corps (United States Army) are killed with poison gas in a railroad tunnel. A group of corrupt American officers, led by a colonel (Vaughn), is behind the crime. The investigation, started by Patton, initially leads to Office of Strategic Services Major Joe De Luca (Cassavetes). It seems the robbers used his plan from one of his wartime operations to steal the gold.