Shooting parties in great country houses turbulent scenes in parliament & the luxury life in Budapest provide the backdrop for this gripping prescient novel forming a chilling indictment of upper-class frivolity & political folly in which good manners cloak indifference & brutality Abady becomes aware of the plight of a group of Romanian mountain peasants & champions their cause while Gyeroffy dissipates his resources at the gaming tables mirroring the decline of the Austro-Hungarian empire itself