He is instructed in the preliminary line-up:You gonna fit in real good, of course, unless you get rabbit in your blood and you decide to take off for home.A ferry boat approaches an unnamed, ambiguous location [the village was filmed by Lake Arrowhead, California] - probably a European country during the early years of the 20th century.The Russians are determinedly inquisitive and ask about the leaked rumor that a "serious epidemic" of unknown origin has broken out there and may spread.The semi-conscious man struggles to pick himself up from he floor.One of the film""s most graceful camera movements occurs next - the camera pulls back from the window and balcony of the Grand Hotel room and floats past other walls, rooms and nocturnal hotel exteriors until it finds a man standing pensively on his hotel balcony.