A retired journalist receives an enigmatic message from a colleague who dies shortly afterwards. A dystopian crime novel, set against a politically explosive backdrop where Switzerland is ruled by a right-wing populist party: Charles Lewinsky unfolds a classic detective story in an eerie setting.

When Kurt Weilemann receives Felix Derendinger’s message, he immediately senses that his colleague is afraid. But what on earth of? He can no longer ask him, because shortly after, Derendinger is found dead on the bank of Zurich’s River Limmat. Suicide by jumping off the wall. Or so the report says. Yet, his beautiful young acquaintance claims otherwise: Derendinger cannot have been fit enough to make the distance between the wall and the river shore in a single leap. She wants Weilemann to solve the murder. He feels flattered and significantly rejuvenated by the task. But his enthusiasm is soon overpowered by fear because those who want to cover up the murder hold key positions in the new state system. They are powerful enough to make him disappear – and the truth along with him.