The story of events of a single night in a small European town during the 1920s. Woody Allen plays Kleinman, a fearful little man who is woken up one night to participate in a mob search for a killer. On the edge of the same town the circus has just arrived & the series of incidents that occur affect not only Kleinman but all the townfolk. Allen's film is a homage to 1920's German Expressionism, shot in black & white by Carlo di Palma.