A morbid hotel known as “Zur schönen Aussicht” (Fair View), on the edge of a village in Central Europe: “An immense map of Europe hangs on the wall. In the corner, a wilting palm-tree. Everything is dusty and neglected. In the room across the hall, a gramophone is playing songs from the South Seas.” The personnel in this eerie place consists of the small-time criminal waiter Max, who prefers to serve the hotel’s few guests barefoot, and the dubious chauffeur Karl, who has already killed at least one man. For some time now, the hotel manager – Strasser, a discharged officer and washed-up screen star – has been strapped for cash. Accordingly, he depends on his only permanent paying guest, Baroness Ada von Stetten, “a starchy, withered creature afraid of being left on the shelf,” who dictatorially uses her power as a solvent woman to satisfy her sexual and emotional needs. Until, that is, a clairvoyant young character by the name of Christine appears to disturb the sinister idyll.
