Two beautiful women have been found strangled in the studio of a
well-known London artist. To investigator William Monk and his wife,
Hester, the murders are a nightmare. One of the victims is the wife of
Hester's cherished colleague, surgeon Dr. Kristian Beck, a Viennese
émigré who becomes the prime suspect. With an intensity born of
desperation, the Monks seek evidence that will save Dr. Beck from the
hangman.
From London's sinister slums to the crowded coffeehouses of Vienna,
where embers of the revolution still burn in the hearts of
freedom-loving men and women, Hester and Monk seek to penetrate not only
the mystery of Elissa Beck's death but the riddle of her life.