When death walks the streets of Vienna, there is only one person who can uncover all its secrets.

1893: Augustin Rothmayer is a gravedigger at the famous Vienna Central Cemetery. A quirky yet highly educated oddball, he writes the first almanac for gravediggers. His tranquility is abruptly disturbed when he receives a visit from the young inspector Leopold von Herzfeldt. Herzfeldt needs a death expert: several maids have been murdered – each one brutally impaled. The gravedigger knows that impalement is an ancient method to keep the undead buried. Is there a superstitious serial killer on the loose in Vienna?

The inspector and the gravedigger begin to investigate together and must realize that deep abysses open up behind the gates of this glamorous world city.