The Capuchin Crypt, the burial place of the Austrian emperors, serves here as a symbol of the former Danube monarchy. The novel takes place shortly before, during, and after World War I; it ends with the so-called annexation of Austria to the German Reich in 1938. The main characters are, as in 'Radetzky March', members of the Trotta family, who became uprooted and destitute in the general upheaval following the war in 1918. Time and again, the motif of mourning resonates for a lost way of life, bound to tradition and the firm structure of a monarchical state. Erotic deviations from the norm, dubious businessmen, and women perceived as masculine are understood as hallmarks of a shattered world, whose decline the nobility and supporters of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy watch with sorrow, despair, and a heavy-hearted resignation.