Jerry Parker, an American construction engineer, is about to leave Madrid for home, but he is detained by customs when a priceless candlestick missing from a church altar is found in his luggage. Because the incident is attributed to a baggage mixup involving a group of beauty contestants en route to Rome, the police permit Jerry to return to his hotel if he will help them expose the real thief. With the candlestick (called The Finger of Fate) placed in his room for bait, Jerry befriends the five beauty contestants and an urchin, Paco, who agrees to help him. The beauty contestants' press agent is murdered, Paco is abducted, and the candlestick inexplicably reappears on the church altar. The thief turns up at the church, and Jerry overpowers him as the police rush in. The villain is revealed to be Winkle, seemingly a tourist, who killed the press agent because he, too, attempted to get the candlestick and then abducted little Paco when the boy learned too much. Jerry now boards the next flight out of Madrid only to discover that he is on a plane headed for Rome with the beauty contestants.