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. When a corpse is found in the woods outside the city and immediately labelled a suicide, Inspector August 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.