The population of Vienna -- a city scarred by World War I in which the grandeur of the Hapsburg Empire is a fading memory -- is surviving by its wits, living hand-to-mouth in a city rife with crime, prostitution, and war-wounded mendicants. There are shakedowns on every street corner, the black market seems to be the only functional market as shortages of vital goods create countless opportunities for unscrupulous operators.

Enter Inspector August Emmerich. A veteran himself, whose ambition lends him to bend the rules when necessary, Emmerich becomes convinced that a corpse found in the woods outside the city is anything but a suicide. His investigations reveal an insidious and homicidal urge lurking in the city.