Guy Van Stratten, a small-time American smuggler working in Europe, is at the scene of a murder. Before expiring, the dying man whispers two names to him, one of them is Gregory Arkadin. After a series of investigations, Van Stratten manages to get to know the character: a millionaire, owner of an industrial and financial empire, who lives locked up with his daughter in a mansion on the French Riviera. Mr. Arkadin, who suffers from amnesia, hires him to investigate his own past.
