The unique novel by Stefan Zweig painfully describes the torturous betrayal of honor and love, against the backdrop of the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The novel, written on the eve and under the shadow of the impending Second World War, is set in the days leading up to the First World War and ends with the bullet that killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo.

The characters are the disillusioned spectators of their tragedy, symbols of a decadent culture that cannot resist the exhilarating joy of a final waltz. Zweig's prose, exquisite and refined, resembles the remnants of this culture that was consumed by the madness of the 20th century. Pity is presented as a dangerous emotion. A semi-paralyzed woman is destroyed by the overwhelming pity of her environment - her father, her doctor, and her fiancé.