At her friend Ivy's behest, Lady Emily Ashton reluctantly agrees to attend a house party at the country estate of Lord Basil Fortescue, a man she finds as personally odious as he is politically powerful. But if she was expecting Lord Fortescue to be the greatest of her problems, she was wrong. Her host has also included Kristiana von Lange among the guests, an Austrian countess who had once been linked romantically with Emily's fiancé, Colin Hargreaves. Both Lord Fortescue and the countess take great delight in tormenting Emily, but petty malice turns deadly serious when Lord Fortescue is found murdered, and his protégé, Robert Brandon - Ivy’s husband - is arrested for the crime.

Emily’s efforts to clear Robert’s name take her to Vienna. Glittering balls, sordid back streets, chic cafes, and even the Imperial palace yield fragmentary clues, but not until Emily engages a notorious anarchist in a game of wits does the shocking truth begin to emerge: The price of exonerating Robert can only be paid by placing Colin in deadly peril. And the one way Emily can ensure his safety is to strike an unthinkable bargain with her nemesis, the Countess von Lange.