English Summary/英文概要： Vienna 1903. Outside one of the city’s most splendid baroque churches the decapitated body of a monk is found. Then, the remains of a municipal councillor are discovered in the grounds of another church – his head also ripped from his body. Both men were rabid anti-Semites and suspicions fall on Vienna’s close-knit community of Hassidic Jews. In a city riven by racial tensions and extremism, the situation is potentially explosive.
Detective Inspector Rheinhardt turns to his trusted friend, the young psychoanalyst Doctor Max Liebermann, for assistance. As the investigation progresses, Liebermann is drawn into the world of Jewish mysticism, a world dominated by the rites and secret lore of the Kabbalah. Although he rejects all forms of superstition, Liebermann is forced to embrace his cultural origins to understand the meaning of the murders. And in the old ghetto district of Prague, he learns of a legend which will ultimately provide him with the key to the mystery.
Amid this threat and fear, Liebermann’s life is in crisis. Political forces conspire against him, resulting in his suspension from the Hospital, and the object of his romantic desires, the unreachable Miss Lydgate, is becoming an unhealthy obsession.