The movie opens with a publisher named Éric Angstrom at a book fair. He announces the launch of the third volume of a novel series named Dedalus. It is a very popular series worldwide, and millions of people have been waiting for it eagerly.
The scene then shifts to Portugal, where we meet a woman named Telma. Next, it moves to Denmark, where a woman named Helene is bidding farewell to her husband and children. After that, to England, where a young man named Alex Goodman, is woken up by some people who take him somewhere in a car.
Then there’s a German woman named Ingrid, a Spanish man named Javier, an Italian man named Dario, and a Greek man named Kedrinos. Lastly, we see a Chinese man named Chen and a Russian woman named Katerina. It turns out that these nine people from various parts of the world are traveling to France to translate Dedalus into their native languages.
Upon their arrival at a large mansion, their belongings are checked, and their mobile phones confiscated. They can only bring themselves and their translation skills. A woman named Rosemary leads them inside, and the nine of them will be invited to enter the secluded part of this building.
After going down several stairs and navigating through numerous corridors, they eventually reach a bunker. Rosemary explains that they will be translating the book over the next two months, so it can be published simultaneously worldwide. It turns out that they will be isolated from the outside world to prevent any leaks of the story before its release.
Rosemary announces that using the internet is strictly prohibited, but they will have all the necessary facilities, including food, accommodation, and entertainment. Next, they enter a room with several guards stationed on each side to keep an eye on them during their work. Here they are greeted by Angstrom.
He informs them that they will be given 20 pages per day to translate, and must complete 480 pages of the book within a month. This will give them another month dedicated to corrections before they can leave. Angstrom then warns against any misbehavior during the translation process, emphasizing that it could endanger not only their careers but also their lives.
The scene then shifts to the translators working in the bunker, with security guards keeping watch on them. While reading the plot, Katerina becomes so moved that she begins to cry while working. At the end of the day, Angstrom arrives with his suitcase, which contains the original script as well as numerous keychains with flags from various countries.
He uses these keys to remove the pen drive connected to the laptop. Afterward, Angstrom asks Dario if he tweeted that he was going to meet the author of Dedalus book, Oscar Brach at this place. It turns out that no one knows about Oscar Brach's identity or what he looks like.
Dario claims he was just joking and advertising the book, but Angstrom says leave the advertising to him. Alex then suggests that they should meet Oscar Brach because they are translating his book, but Angstrom declares that he has no interest in meeting anyone. In the next scene, Katerina is waiting at Angstrom’s office when she hears him talking to someone in another room.
She notices his suitcase nearby and attempts to open it. After trying different combinations, she eventually succeeds and finds the original manuscript inside. Just then, Angstrom arrives, and compliments her on her excellent translation work.
The scene shifts to a few months earlier, where we see Angstrom visiting an old bookstore away from town. There, he meets an elderly man named George, and asks why he is still running the store instead of traveling the world. With the money George earned from his books, he could do anything.
George responds that he plans to retire after the final book of Dedalus is published, and the old man is actually Oscar Brach, who has been hiding away from the world. Returning to the bunker, a few days have passed, and the translators are enjoying themselves, and becoming well acquainted with one another. During their free time, they gather to play games, drink, and have fun.
At night, Angstrom is eating when he suddenly receives a text. He is furious to see the message and immediately summons all of the translators. It turns out that someone has stolen the script and already published the first 10 pages of Dedalus.
The thief is now demanding 5 million euros within 25 hours, or else threatening to publish the first 100 pages of the book. Angstrom is enraged and begins to accuse one of the translators of doing this. He announces that the translation work will be stopped, until the thief is captured.
Hearing this, Kedrinos starts laughing; he states that readers will not buy his books when they can already find half of them online. This enrages Angstrom and he orders his guard to brutally beat up Kedrinos. Angstrom then states that everything will be fine if the thief just comes forward and confesses.
Following this, the security guards begin checking the translators’ rooms one by one. They do not discover anything suspicious, until they come across Helene's room. They find some pages written in Danish hidden inside her pillows.
She tells Angstrom that this is not Dedalus, but her own novel, which she has been working on for eight years. She explains that, because of her husband and children, she couldn't finish it in her regular life. This was why she came here—to complete her novel in isolation.
However, Angstrom, who understands Danish, tells her that her novel is worthless and she has no talent. He also informs her that she is not permitted to work on her personal projects while staying here. Following this, he starts burning her pages in the fireplace, leaving Helene devastated that her entire life's work is gone.
In the next scene, all the translators are discussing the situation. Chen suggests that the thief could be one of them and might have hidden a phone or some device on themselves. During this, everyone's attention shifts to Javier, who is wearing a hand plaster.
Javier states that he was in a bike accident. However, they don't believe him, and Telma quickly tries to remove his plaster, and realizes that he’s not pretending, because there's nothing inside. Later, Alex returns to his room and finds everything scattered.
Just then, Katerina shows up and states that she doesn't trust him, and believes he has been lying to them from the beginning. She knows that the work he claims to have done is a lie, and that he is not a professional translator. Here, Alex reveals that he is now stuck in a dire situation, and begins telling her his story.
11 months ago, Alex was actually a regular person who was a fan of the works of Oscar Brach, the author of Dedalus. At that moment, Alex intentionally translated volumes 1 and 2 on his own to meet Oscar Brach by making translations far better than what the translators had done at the time, from French to English. As a result, many people commented and suggested Alex as a replacement translator.
Right in front of Angstrom, Alex boldly claimed he could predict the first sentence of the third volume of the Dedalus book. Angstrom was curious, and told Alex to write it down. Obviously, it couldn't be exactly the same, considering the book hadn't been released yet, but in fact what Alex wrote immediately stunned Angstrom.
Alex explained that this happened because Alex saw the first sentences of the first and second books, and put them together like math. Seeing this, Angstrom is impressed and eventually decides to hire the young boy as their English translator. Alex is now worried that Angstrom is suspicious of him being a thief and leaking the story online.
Upon hearing all this, Katerina also reveals that she almost stole the manuscript, but was interrupted by Angstrom. She admits that she just wanted to know the book’s ending and had no other intentions. The next day, reports of 10 leaked pages from Dedalus spread widely in the news.
Meanwhile, inside the bunker, Angstrom has gathered all the translators and is forcing them to strip. Suddenly, he receives another text from the thief, who threatens to release 100 pages of the book. The thief demands 21 million euros, this time within a 6-hour timeframe.
Frustrated, Angstrom declares that until the thief is found, they won't receive anything from him, and he locks them in the working room. Shortly after he leaves, the lights are suddenly turned off, causing the whole place to be dark. In the evening, the translators light some candles.
Helene shares that when she was young, she dreamt of becoming a writer, but due to her marriage, she never got the chance to pursue her dreams. She explains that she came here to finish her novel, but now she's forgotten everything and can't write anymore. We then return to the flashback at the bookstore, Angstrom excitedly discusses with George how he has found the perfect spot to lock up the translators for the next two months.
However, George shocks him by claiming that he doesn't want to work with him anymore. Angstrom offers to give him an extra million dollars, but the old man insists that it's not about the money. He explains that when he first met Angstrom, Angstrom was a humble publisher, but now he has become money-driven and greedy.
The scene shifts to the bunker, where we see Dario carrying candles and heading somewhere. To his surprise, he discovers that Helene has done the unthinkable using a rope. Angstrom also appears, and he believes that his words deeply affect her, leading to her despair.
Just then, he receives a call from Rosemary, whom he had sent to London to cross-check on Alex. She tells him that she went to Alex’s apartment, but found nothing there. Afterward, Helen’s body is taken down, and everyone is overcome with sadness.
Angstrom then begins to read another email, in which the thief claims to have already published 200 pages of the book. The thief is now demanding 80 million euros, and threatening to release the entire book. An enraged Angstrom begins pointing guns at everyone, and it is at this point that Alex finally admits that he is behind this.
As a result, Alex is beaten until he struggles to breathe. Angstrom then asks Alex to tell him how to stop the leak, or else he will kill the others too, so Alex admits that all of this is done through automated systems on his computer, which is in London right now. Plus, Alex states that if Angstrom doesn't transfer the money, his computer will automatically publish the book on the Internet.
A desperate Angstrom then decides to shoot Katerina in the stomach. Alex is forced to provide his real address, and Angstrom immediately calls Rosemary, instructing her to go there. She arrives at the location, and sees the laptop.
Alongside it, there is a picture of Angstrom yelling at her. Angstrom asks her to break the laptop, saying her shit servant life will change into a bright future if she manages to do this. It is at this point that Rosemary suddenly has a change of heart, and decides not to listen to her jerk boss anymore.
She tells him to go to hell and hangs up the phone. Having no other option, Angstrom calls one of his business partners, and asks him to transfer 80 million euros to the given account. His partner obliges, and the money is successfully transferred.
Just then, Angstrom receives another message, after which he throws away his phone in anger. Dario picks up the phone and finds out that, despite the money sent, the book is published anyway. Frustrated, Angstrom directly shoots at Alex.
Seeing this, the guards finally restrain their boss and call the cops. The translators gather around Alex and, surprisingly, find him unharmed. It turns out there was a book hidden in his jacket, which prevented him from getting shot.
Not long after, Angstrom is arrested while Katerina is taken to the hospital. Katerina is being treated seriously, as she is entering a critical phase due to severe bleeding earlier. Upon seeing this, Alex decides to go to the police station.
In jail, Angstrom asks where the 80 million euros are, but Alex remains silent. Angstrom then says that when they first met in London, Alex accurately predicted the first the first sentence of the third volume of the Dedalus book. That was before he stole the manuscript so he asks how he did it.
In response, Alex gets up and covers his microphone. He shockingly reveals that he wrote the novel, and that he is none other than Oscar Brach. Through a flashback, we see Alex's childhood, when he used to visit George's bookstore frequently.
He used to help the old man around the place, and they were very close. His parents were divorced, and he found solace at the bookstore while hanging out with George. When Alex grew up and wrote Dedalus, it was George who encouraged him to publish it.
Alex was very skeptical, as he had never thought of being an author. After the old man's insistence, he eventually agreed to publish the book, but asked George to pretend to be the author. Once he published two books, Alex became frustrated with Angstrom's greed, and his methods of advertising.
When he discovered Angstrom's plans to recruit and lock translators in a bunker like animals, he snapped. So Alex requested that George cancel all deals with him, and find a new publisher. We then see that when Angstrom was announcing the third book in front of the media, Alex was shocked because this wasn't supposed to happen.
In the present, Alex reveals that he never stole the manuscript, and Alex didn't need to steal it since he is the author. The truth is that Angstrom has nothing to be stolen from. Alex discloses that he has already sent the 80 million euros back to Angstrom.
If the police find this money in his account, he will be held responsible for orchestrating everything, and locking in and torturing his translators like animals for publicity. Alex then removes his hands from the microphone, and the angry Angstrom announces that he is not the real Oscar Brach, because Angstrom killed him with his own hands. It turns out that when George refused to work with Angstrom anymore, the cunning publisher eventually killed him by pushing him down the stairs.
After that, he set the whole bookstore on fire to make it look like an accident, and ran away with the original manuscript. Meanwhile, the cops are shocked to hear this new information. In the final scene, an enraged Angstrom begins to attack Alex, but the cops soon show up, and take him back to his cell.
Alex then leaves the prison, reminiscing about his sweet memories with George during his childhood days. Alex who had been behind the name Oscar Brock all this time feels satisfied. The happiness from all the profits from the third volume of his Dedalus Book will not surpass the happiness Alex feels now after imprisoning Angstrom.
