In the twilight of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Anselm Eibenschütz is appointed inspector of weights and measures in a remote border town. There he encounters a shadowy world of gamblers and smugglers - and discovers his wife is pregnant by another man. Right and wrong prove hard to judge, as Eibenschütz is drawn into a destructive affair of his own.In this late masterpiece, Joseph Roth depicts the slow corruption of a decent man at the lawless edge of a crumbling world.