Most of the remaining population of Vienna in the ruins of World War I is surviving by its wits, living hand to mouth in a city rife with crime, prostitution, and grotesquely wounded beggars. Post-war Vienna is a deeply scarred city where the glories of the Hapsburg Empire are but a fading memory, where the black market is the only market and shortages of vital goods create countless opportunities for unscrupulous operators.
Into this cauldron of vice comes Inspector August Emmerich, a veteran whose ambitions lead him to break the rules when necessary and whose abiding wish is to join the Viennese major crimes unit. When a corpse is found in the woods outside the city and immediately labelled a suicide, Emmerich, convinced it was nothing of the sort, sees a chance to prove his mettle. But his investigations will reveal a more insidious and homicidal urge lurking in the city than even he anticipates.