When Elisabeth Petznek died in Vienna in 1963, the sharp shepherd dogs in her bed also fell silent. She had lived nearly 80 years. Quick-tempered, vulnerable, unruly, open-hearted, brusque, and headstrong. A woman who had never fit into the roles assigned to her or the ones she longed for throughout her life. On the occasion of her birth in 1883, she was celebrated as the granddaughter of Emperor Franz Joseph with cannon salutes, torchlight processions, and parades; 80 years later, the situation could not have been more different from that imperial pomp. She had broken with everything her heritage once represented. In 1948, she married for the second time: Leopold Petznek, her long-time partner, a teacher and Social Democratic politician; the first man who did not capitulate before her. The novel tells the life story of a spoiled granddaughter of the Habsburgs.