World War II is over, and former German intelligence officer Captain Gregor Reinhardt has returned to Berlin. He's about to find that the bloodshed has not ended - and that for some, death is better than defeat. A year after Germany's defeat, Reinhardt has been hired back into Berlin's civilian police force. The city is divided among the victorious allied powers, but tensions are growing, and the local police are riven by internal rivalries as factions jockey for power and influence with Berlin's new masters. When a man is found slain in a broken-down tenement, Reinhardt embarks on a gruesome investigation. It seems a serial killer is on the loose...