Doom lurks in the shadow of the gallows. When the body of a whore is found on Frankfurt's Gallusberg, Judge Blettner is immediately certain: it was suicide. But his young wife Hella sees things differently. And it is not long before a second dead body is found in the same place: the missing garment tailor Voss. Hella and her mother, the widow Gustelies, decide it is high time for a proper investigation. The trail leads them up into the highest echelons of the Frankfurt guilds and deep down into the darkest corners of the imperial city.
