Adolf Verloc runs a struggling shop for trinkets and pornography in Soho. In the small apartment behind the shop, he lives with his wife Winnie and her mentally disabled brother Stevie. What Winnie doesn't know is that Verloc is writing spy reports on the anarchist scene for embassy official Wladimir. Wladimir also commissions him to carry out a bombing at the observatory in Greenwich to incite the London police against the anarchists. For this, Verloc chooses the gullible Stevie, who is torn apart by the bomb that explodes too soon. It is only days later that Winnie learns from the police what has happened to her beloved brother.