The night train has arrived. In City Night Line, Heinrich Voss took what he wanted aboard the train. The work continues in Vienna. In his apartment overlooking the First District, the wealthy German shifts his focus from pursuit to philosophy. Klara Huber, the seamstress he selected on the journey from Frankfurt, is now dressed in red — his chosen colour for her — and must inhabit the argument he is making about power, will, and what a man may do when he no longer accepts the limits that society calls morality.

As the snow falls on a city still bearing the marks of the Empire, Voss finds more than just a subject. An intellectual woman named Liesel Hartmann engages with his ideas, and the private world he is creating becomes increasingly intricate, explicit and dangerous. Vienna in Red is the sequel to City Night Line, offering a darker and more deliberate exploration of control, desire and the question of who is shaped and who does the shaping.