It's sometime in the near future. This year's Nobel Prizes have just been announced with the recipients descending on Stockholm, all staying at the Grand Hotel. The recipients and their behind-the-scenes stories include: American Dr. John Garrett and Italian Dr. Carlo Farelli sharing the prize for medicine for their individual work on the same topic, with Dr. Garrett sure that Dr. Farelli somehow stole his work; husband and wife Frenchmen Drs. Claude and Denise Marceau sharing the prize for chemistry, while their marriage is basically non-existent, Claude's mistress Monique Souvir, about whom Denise knows, openly traveling with them as his secretary; American Dr. Max Stratman awarded the prize for physics, he who is accompanied by his now-adult niece Emily Stratman who he has not seen since she was a child and who may not know that he is being strong-armed to defect back to his homeland of East Germany against his will; and American Andrew Craig awarded the prize for literature, despite his six novels to date not having sold well, not having written anything in five years, having disdain for the award itself except the prize money, and being more renowned for his excessive lifestyle, especially with booze and women. As Craig is traveling by himself, the Swedish foreign office has assigned him a personal aide, the beautiful Inger Lisa Andersson, whose biggest job is to make sure he doesn't embarrass himself or by association the Nobel name. At a press conference, Craig admits that of late he has been making a living writing pulp-fiction detective novels under a pseudonym. His detective skills are put to the test when he gets embroiled in his fellow Nobel laureates' back issues, most specifically Dr. Stratman's. In the process, he has to convince Miss Andersson, with whom he is falling in love, of what he discovers, which includes a dead body, his own life in danger, and the kidnapping of Dr. Stratman, despite Dr. Stratman seemingly attending all the Nobel functions.