September 1941.
Bernie Gunther returns from the Eastern Front to find Berlin changed, and changed for the worse. The blackout, rationing, the RAF, the S-Bahn murderer and Czech terrorists are all conspiring to make life very unpleasant. Back at his old desk on Homicide, Bernie starts to investigate the death of a Dutch railway worker, while starting something - of an entirely different nature - with a local good-time girl.
But he is obliged to drop everything when his old boss, Reinhard Heydrich, the new Reichsprotector of Bohemia and Moravia, orders him to Prague to spend a weekend at his country house. It's an invitation Bernie would gladly have spared especially when he meets his fellow guests - all of them senior loathsome figures in the SS and SD.
The weekend turns sour almost immediately when a body is found, in a room locked from the inside. Now the spotlight falls on Bernie to use his investigative skills to solve the immposible mistery. If he fails to do so, he knows what is it at stake - not only his reputation, but also that of Reinhard Heydrich, a man who does not like to lose face.