The opening scenes of the film are on board the freighter "Lucona", where life is quiet and peaceful until there is an explosion in the hold.
We are taken back then to Vienna, a year earlier, where the happenings leading up to the explosion started. Rudi Waltz (David Suchet) is the jovial, extremely popular owner of one of the famous Viennese coffee-houses. Upstairs, over the public café, he runs an exclusive club for the famous, mostly politicians and important business people. His opponent is Hans Strasser (Jürgen Prochnow), a journalist, who is convinced, that a lot of shady deals are taking place in this club and Waltz is at least heavily involved if not behind this wheeling and dealing. He publishes a modest little newspaper, trying to open the eyes of the public to the corruption of the Austrian government.
Right in the beginning, Waltz walks into a café, where Strasser is sitting and reading, challenging him over an article in his newspaper, in which Strasser attacked Waltz and his political friends. Waltz pretends not to take Strasser and his little pamphlet seriously but he is very annoyed. Instead of threatening Strasser, he invites him to come to a concert in the club, to see for himself, that it is just a place, where VIPs can relax without nasty journalists around.
Back in his wonderful coffee-house, he consults with his right hand, Lilly and tells her about the invitation. Lilly warns him, that he won't be able to win Strasser over and corrupt him, that he may become dangerous to their plans. But Waltz laughs, he is very sure of himself.
Hans Strasser visits the concert and meets some of the VIPs. He is even offered the membership in the club and the opportunity of exclusive interviews and interesting articles but Strasser declines. He tells Waltz, that he can imagine now, how a woman, who is about to be seduced, must feel. During the concert in a backroom, Waltz is organizing a weapons deal. After the concert, Waltz introduces Strasser to his three ex-wives and Lilly, before Strasser leaves.
Outside, Strasser notices a string of very beautiful women enter the building, while the lights go out upstairs. He stays for a while to watch but he can't see anything from where he is and finally goes home.
In the club, after the concert another party has started: Waltz has hired high class prostitutes for his political "friends". While they amuse themselves with the ladies, Waltz watches them through hidden cameras and records a few scenes, which may come in handy one day.
When Strasser gets home, his wife pleads with him, to stop doing research on Waltz. She is afraid, of what he may be up against, besides all the time, he spends on his work. Strasser explains, that he has to do it. That he can't go on living in a country, where a court-jester like Waltz runs the whole government from his club and god knows what else.
Waltz has a conference with two ministers of the Austrian government, amomg them the minister of defence, Weidenfeld. The model Waltz has in the backroom of his club, is that of a plant for upgrading uranium ore, which he plans to build in Austria. Austria is not into nuclear power or even nuclear weapons, so building the plant will be politically very difficult and will have to be kept secret as long as possible. The plant would be imported in bits and pieces from various places all over the world.
Waltz has even found a site for it. He and Lilly go to investigate. During the car drive to the place, Waltz and Lilly have a conversation, during which it becomes clear, what motivates Waltz: it is not the money but the power, the fun of manipulating people and getting, what he wants and plans. He has come up from the gutter and is applying gutter-psychology to the highest government circles, successfully. Lilly is slightly scared about the present project, she thinks, it is too dangerous for people to be a game any longer but she still goes along with Waltz.
The chosen site is in a relatively unpopulated part of Austria, an industrial ruin. To camouflage their plans, a factory called Rivera S.A. is founded, pretending to produce dummy plastic tanks. When Strasser reads about this in a newspaper, he smells a rat and goes to investigate, but is turned away by the police.
The business that Waltz has in mind needs secrecy, so he and an Italian partner hire workmen in Italy. They don't want locals to know what they are doing. The Italian and Waltz also found a shipping line and buy the ship "Lucona". The workmen start dismantling the ruin on the site and transport the parts to Italy, after painting the name "Rivera S.A." onto some of them. Strasser watches from behind bushes and is puzzled. Waltz arranges the transport of a high-tech industrial plant from Genoa to Hong Kong on the "Lucona" and a very high insurance for the transport with an Austrian Insurance. Weidenfeld, the minister of defence, helps Waltz to get some explosives from the army.
It gets more and more obvious, that the whole plan has nothing to do with building a plant for upgrading uranium in Austria, it is a gigantic insurance-fraud and two ministers are in on it. Strasser is still trying to make sense of what he has seen, while Waltz sends him postcards from Venice, Genoa or Hong Kong. Strasser's wife again begs him to stop.
Waltz gives a big good-bye-party for the Lucona in Venice. The captain has to report to the Italian partner every twelve hours and after arrival in Hong Kong to await further orders.
The Lucona starts on her journey but it soon turns out, that she is much faster, than they had planned. The weight of the fake cargo had been calculated far too high. Waltz and his partner try to slow them down, by not paying the fees for the Suez-canal in time and sending them into unplanned ports, like Djibutti. Soon the ship is on schedule again for the place in the Indian ocean, where it is going to be blown up.
The partners involved in this crime meet to celebrate in Geneva and to await the official anouncement of the loss of the Lucona, so that they can inform the insurance. But when a fax arrives, they get a shock: there are six survivors, among them the captain, who will be brought into the port of Aden.
When Strasser reads about the Lucona, he recognises the company name "Rivera" as the one, he saw at the industrial site. He goes back to the site, to ask the locals. They tell him, that there were only Italians working on the site and that they were transporting some rubbish away.
The insurance decides not to pay, but one of the politicians involved puts some pressure on them. Strasser tries to interview the manager of the insurance but gets no answers.
The survivors of the Lucona have made their way to Rotterdam. Waltz has been threatening them and is spreading rumours, that the captain is an alcoholic and mentally unstable. Strasser tries to make them talk, telling them that the only way they can ever be safe again, is to help him get Waltz into prison, but to no avail.
When Waltz overhears that the politicians are getting cold feet and consider dropping him, he gets out his little store of information about their lives to keep them on his side. The insurance case goes to court and it is decided, that the insurance has to pay. Strasser sits in the audience and later is physically attacked by Waltz on the staircase. Waltz suddenly grabs him by the ankles and holds him over the bannister. He threatens to kill Strasser, if he doesn't stop snooping.
Strasser makes contact to a secret service agent in a tram, trying to interest them in Waltz. It turns out, they know all about him, but always get called back, when they try to do something. So Strasser is on his own, but he writes his article.
Waltz is besides himself with his triumph, to demonstrate, that nobody can touch him, he drives a tank onto the square in front of his coffee-house and emerges from it in a Napoleon-costume. He has an orgiastic party with his friends.
Meanwhile Strasser presents Weidenfeld, the minister of defence, with his article, which also describes the minister's involvement in the fraud and the sinking of the Lucona. Weidenfeld gets scared, he calls Waltz in the middle of his party.
Next morning, Weidenfeld is found dead in his car. The official version is "suicide", but the forensic scientist tells Strasser, that he is sure, it was murder, as Weidenfeld was shot through his closed mouth. Strasser feels guilty, because he knows, he caused this killing.
Strasser meets Waltz again at Weidenfeld's funeral. He tells Strasser, that he didn't corrupt anybody, they were corruptible in the first place, it was all a great game. Strasser answers, that he is going to publish a book about Waltz and his club. Waltz puts a wreath around Strasser's neck and tells him to be careful.
Strasser writes his book, in spite of the fears of his wife. A parcel is delivered to his door and picked up by his son. Strasser is convinced, it is a bomb and carefully opens it in the garden: it is a jack-in-the-box, sent by Waltz. Inspite of this, Strasser continues, he goes to Venice to find some of the workmen, who were on the site in Austria. But he can't find anybody and is threatened by some thugs.
On his return to Vienna, he finds his flat burgled and his manuscript stolen. Waltz even goes to the school, which Strasser's son attends to threaten him and his mother. After this, Strasser confronts Waltz and tells him, the book will be published in spite of everything Waltz has done, including making his original publisher drop him.
Strasser finds another publisher. The book is sold and there is a scandal. Politicians step down and the sinking of the Lucona will be reinvestigated. Only Waltz and Lilly have disappeared.
Waltz has gone to Manila for some face-surgery. He doesn't like the result, though! He decides, that there was no reason to panic, he still has a lot of friends and some material to make other people act in his favor. There is still hope, to get the insurance money. he goes back to Vienna to give himself up to the police and await the outcome of the trial.
During the trial, he maintains, that the Lucona didn't sink at all but was stolen by the captain and sold, incl. the high-tech industrial plant, to some foreign power. As long as the wreck isn't found, there is no case against him. The judge decides, that a search for the wreck has to be started. The judgement is postponed.
A search-vessel with an underwater-camera is sent, with a 14-day schedule to search the bottom of the Indian Ocean, where the Lucona probably sank. The area in question has been calculated by a company of salvage experts, one of them is on board. They don't find anything during the 14 days. But at the end of that time, the captain of the salvage vessel makes his own calculations and comes up with a different place, where the wreck might be. Against the advice of the "expert", they try again in the new place and really find the wreck and even some of the cargo with the inscription "Rivera" on it.
There is no doubt anymore, Waltz is found guilty by the jury and is sentenced to lifelong prison. The film ends with his old partners in Italy and Hong Kong making new plans and Waltz seems quite optimistic, that he won't spend all his life in prison.