In 1529, Brian Duffy, a world-weary Irish mercenary soldier, is hired in Venice by the mysterious Aurelianus to go to Vienna and work as a bouncer at the Zimmerman Inn, former monastery and current brewery of the famous Herzwesten beer.

Duffy spent time in Vienna years ago, and as he returns, he is haunted by memories of past events, and also finds himself having visions of mythical creatures and being ambushed by shadowy people and demonic monsters.

Upon arriving in Vienna, Duffy reconnects with Epiphany Vogel, a former girlfriend, and her father Gustav, who is working on a painting he calls "The Death of St. Michael the Archangel".

[2] Black Gate noted that it is "full of the sort of inventive oddness common to Powers’s works", and praised both the characterization and the sudden tone shift (from "autumnal" to "positively wintry" ) halfway through.

[4] At Pornokitsch, Amal El-Mohtar similarly found it to be a "proto-Powers work", containing "the seeds of future writing that (she) absolutely loved", but faulted it for excessive Orientalism, and for not portraying the viewpoints of any of the non-Western characters.