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Madam Freya, a famous pianist who long ago left her country and is thus legally not a citizen of any country, is currently on tour in a South American country troubled by a rebellion, living in a hotel and often visited by friend and lover Jorge Vega. On the day of her last concert before her departure, a member of the country's secret police visits her, and recruits her against her will to spy on the hotel room next door, which serves as a drop-off point for rebel messages. Freya does not want to help, but is forced to do so when her passport is confiscated. She is instructed to signal the secret servicemen by playing a different type of music on her piano in case the courier is innocent, or guilty. To her shock, she sees Jorge Vega arriving that day, who says goodbye and instructs her to deliver a manuscript to a friend in another country. As he leaves, Freya plays the music for guilty, and Vega is arrested and shot when he tries to escape.

In the 19th century, Charles Stubbs is a perfectly ordinary citizen, until one day, he sees a terrifying spirit of a murdered old man appear to him. Shortly thereafter, he is summoned to be head of the jury on a murder trial, where a man called Higgins is accused of murdering an old man after he was caught cheating with his wife. Stubbs does not want to attend, but when the ghost appears to him again, he decides to accept the task. At the trial, Higgins complains about Stubbs being on the jury, despite the two never having met - since it is revealed that the apparition of Stubbs holding a noose appeared to him in jail every night. During the trial, both Stubbs and the defense lawyer, as well as a prostitute trying to provide an alibi for Higgins, keep seeing glimpses of the ghost, and eventually even the last opposing jury member is convinced of Higgins' guilt, and he is found guilty. Later, when Stubbs reads in the papers about Higgins' execution, the ghost appears to him a final time, nodding thanks, then fading away, having been put to rest.