Law student Martin Bork takes a job as a night
watchman at
Copenhagen's Forensic Medicine Institute, believing it will allow more time to study. As part of his
nightly rounds, Martin is required to use a
watchclock as he checks numerous locations throughout the hospital, including the
morgue. The retiring watchman tells Martin a story about a scandal that once occurred in the institute, in which a night watchman engaged in
necrophilia with corpses in the morgue; the incident was never publicized, however. Meanwhile, a
serial killer is
scalping and murdering women in the city. One night, police superintendent Peter Wörmer arrives at the institute with the body of a recent victim, Inge. Peter tells Martin he once worked as the building's night watchman before joining the police. Later, while Martin is on duty, a pull-string alarm is activated in the morgue. When Martin goes to investigate, he finds his classmate and friend Jens, posed as a corpse under a medical sheet, playing a prank. In their spare time, Martin and Jens challenge each other to a series of dares, with the loser being challenged to marry Kalinka and Lotte, their respective girlfriends. As the dares become more risky, Jens challenges Martin to have sex with Joyce, a young
prostitute and
heroin addict he has had relations with, using Martin's name as an
alias. During a dinner, in which Martin goes by Jens's name, Joyce recounts that she suspects one of her clients may be the unknown serial killer who murdered Inge. One night at the institute, Martin finds bloody footprints in the morgue, which he follows through the basement, leading to Inge's body propped up in a hallway. When he phones the on-call physician to inspect, the body and footprints have disappeared, and Inge's corpse is undisturbed in the morgue. Kalinka begins to worry that his job at the institute is affecting his psychological state. Kalinka insists on spending a night with Martin on the job. In the morgue, Martin and Kalinka have sex. The next day, Joyce visits Kalinka and reveals his and Jens's game of dares to her. Kalinka angrily confronts Martin. At the institute, Martin is confronted by Wörmer, who notifies him that Inge's corpse has been disturbed and that
semen was found in the freezer. Wörmer requests a
semen sample from Martin for genetic testing. Shortly after, Kalinka goes to visit Joyce in her apartment, only moments after Joyce is murdered by an unseen client donning medical gloves. Inside the apartment, Kalinka discovers Joyce's body and glimpses the assailant's gloved hand gripping a door before fleeing. Joyce's killer is revealed to be Wörmer, who scrawls "Martin" on her pillowcase in blood and leaves behind Martin's semen on her body to frame him. When investigator Rolf meets Kalinka and Jens, he informs them Martin's name was found at the crime scene. Jens insists Martin could not be responsible, as Joyce believed Martin's name was Jens. Meanwhile, while investigating the institute's employee records, Martin realizes that the unknown necrophiliac nightwatchman the retiring guard told him about is Wörmer. Moments later, Wörmer arrives and escorts Martin to the morgue. Kalinka arrives shortly after, and finds Martin attacking Wörmer. Believing Martin is guilty, she flees with Wörmer, who shortly reveals himself as the killer before attacking her. Jens arrives at the institute with Rolf during the chaos. After binding Martin and Kalinka, Wörmer allows them inside. He murders Rolf with a baseball bat before handcuffing Jens. While Wörmer returns to the morgue to kill Martin and Kalinka, Jens manages to free himself and shoots Wörmer to death with Rolf's gun. Sometime later, Martin and Jens marry Kalinka and Lotte in a joint ceremony. == Cast ==