When a beautiful young medium is found dead in mysterious circumstances, Dr Max Liebermann, is called upon by Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt of the Vienna Police to assist in the search for the killer.
Max's engagement party is interrupted by news of a grotesque series of murders in Vienna's slums. Oskar quickly arrests a suspect and finds circumstantial evidence to support a conviction. But Max isn't convinced they've got the right man.
Max's nephew suffers a breakdown after the drowning of a fellow cadet at a military academy. The police department refute suspicions but Max shows Oskar a pattern of violence and believes that they're looking at a murder investigation.
When a depressed Hungarian Countess drowns in the bath of her luxury hotel suite it looks like suicide. Intense scrutiny falls on her psychoanalyst, Max Liebermann. Investigating Officer Oskar Rheinhardt teams up with Max to solve the riddle of the Countess' death and clear Max's professional reputation.
A beggar-girl finds a mutilated corpse in Vienna's slum quarter. The secret services warn Oskar that the investigation is not the concern of the Leopoldstadt police. However, when Oskar receives anonymous messages relating to the murder, he can't resist delving further.
A monk has been found brutally murdered in his monastery. Suspicion falls on a religious Jew who had reprimanded the monk for spreading anti-Semitic rhetoric. To untangle a web of deceit Max and Oskar will have to understand the power of belief.
Vienna, 1908. A young seamstress is murdered in a luxury fashion house. Oscar and Max are initially perplexed by the means and the motive for her death, but further clues are revealed when Max receives a letter at his newly established practice. Together, the two friends uncover some dark and sinister secrets at the heart of the Viennese glamour industry.
Max applies his neurological expertise to the case of a retired soldier, Captain Steiner, who is convinced that he is cursed and tortured by vengeful spirits. It looks like a tragic case of trauma-induced paranoia when the captain is found to have committed suicide in a gruesome manner. But Max and Oskar are not convinced.
When a famous film star dies during the premiere of her new film, both Max and Oskar are on the scene. Max admits she was a former emergency admission to his hospital, where he briefly treated her. Their investigation gets them embroiled in the dark underbelly of stardom and far-right Austrian politics.
