On the Alps, two schoolteachers discover a gruesome sight - the corpse of a murdered man. How the corpse came to be there is the story of Rex Buchanan and his wife Paula. Rex, a pulp fiction author, comes home one day eager to tell Paula about a fantastic plot for his next novel, THE BALLAD OF THE RUNNING MAN. A man insures his life, and with the aid of his wife pretends to fall ill and eventually 'dies' - but Rex wants them to act it out in real life...