Moscow 1937: The Soviet metropolis at the height of Stalin's dictatorship. In a whirlwind of violence, society completely collapses. Karl Schlögel reconstructs month by month how the terror of a state of emergency escalated into the "Great Terror," which claimed the lives of one and a half million people within a year. However, this is not the whole story: In the shadow of terror, Stalin's regime seeks to build a new society. Drawing on countless documents, Schlögel vividly portrays a time when terror and dreams seamlessly intertwined in his historical masterpiece.