Hotel detective Janos Kovacs travels from San Remo, where the Schlagerfestival will soon be held, to London. He wants to sell critical information to the crime reporter Barney Blair. Before Barney arrives, Kovacs is stabbed.

Princess Turandot asks her court dignitaries three riddles, and those who do not answer correctly lose their heads. When young Calaf sees the Prince of Samarkand ride by on the cart of those condemned to death, he decides to put an end to the whims of Turandot, who is the despair of her father, the Emperor of China. Tu…