Writing
On a tropical island, doctors are trying to eradicate malaria, a disease that is causing numerous deaths. Two of them are in love with the same woman, Virginia, a doctor. One of them, Pietro Fischer, had previously been engaged to her, but was implicated in a murder, though innocent. Having fled to avoid prison, he is tried and convicted in absentia. Years later, he returns under the alias of Dos Passos, gaining a reputation as a talented scientist.
A successful German overseas merchant with a plantation in Haiti is looking for a suitable wife in Hamburg and comes across a barmaid from the Reeperbahn with an illegitimate child. He wants to marry her, but she does not follow him out of nobility. In search of her, he finds her in Mexico as the secretary of his former lover, a writer.
During his trip to the city, a naïve man from the countryside falls victim to a thief who steals his wallet. Since all his personal documents were in it, he not only looses his money but also his identity. The thief turns out to be a cunning con man, who uses the papers for his criminal schemes. Soon enough, a warrant is issued, and eventually both men – the thief and the innocent guy – are arrested. But since all the red tape of the government causes even more confusion, the odyssey of the victim searching for his lost identity has just started.
