The historian and publicist Edgard Haider takes the reader into Vienna in the year 1914, to balls and celebrations, to the theater, to streets and squares, into residential buildings and palaces in a city whose inhabitants refuse to acknowledge that Vienna is also on the brink of disaster. The astonishing euphoria over the outbreak of war in the summer has remained in consciousness, yet what else happened in this fateful year is largely forgotten. Haider has gathered numerous documents that reveal a glimpse into the world a hundred years ago. Prophetic analyses of the political situation, hinting at a new order, can be found here alongside gross misjudgments. The search for traces leads to customs and fashions that now seem bizarre, but also uncovers surprisingly modern elements. A dance on the volcano, whose eruption is celebrated like a long-awaited salvation.