In 1969, at the height of the Cold War, historians Adrian Coombe and Tulpe Vellum are cruising down the Rhine in search of medieval artefacts for their university. Eccentric Carolingian Judge von Metzenburg persuades them to take him immediately to the Black Forest Frankenrichter Courthouse in exchange for valuable antiques. In the village of Ewigkeit, Adrian and Tulpe find a converted monastery, a sixteenth-century coaching inn, and the railway station-but...