Death and the Maiden

Vienna 1903. Ida Rosenkrantz, the beautiful opera diva, is found dead in her luxurious villa. At first glance it looks like and overdose of morphine, but a broken rib suggests something more sinister. Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt seeks the assistance of his young friend, the psychoanalyst Dr Max Liebermann, and they begin their inquiries at Vienna's majestic opera house. But when the demagogue Mayor of vienna, Karl Lueger, becomes the prime suspect - with an election only months away - the Rosenkrantz case proves politically explosive. The trail leads Rheinhardt and Liebermann to the Hofburg Palace and the mysterious Lord Marshal - a shadowy character who ruthlessly protects the ageing Emperor Franz Josef. As the investigation proceeds, corruption is exposed at the very highest levels, throwing the investigators into a mire of danger and intrigue. Meanwhile, Liebermann is pursuing his own personal obsession: the alluring Englishwoman, Miss Amelia Lydgate. Death and romance collide as the Habsburg Empire teeters on the edge of scandal and ruin.