Oskar Voxlauer, a teenage deserter from the Austro-Hungarian army in the First World War, returns to his birthplace after almost 20 years' exile in Communist Ukraine. Still deeply traumatized by his wartime experiences and by the suicide of his father, a well-known musician, Voxlauer takes a job as a gamekeeper in the mountains in order to stay away from the growing political tensions in town.

Yet a curious triangle develops when Voxlauer falls in love with young Else and meets her cousin, Kurt, a rising star in the National Socialist Party. The delicate armed equilibrium they maintain with one another is destroyed, however, when the bar owned by Paul, Voxlauer's Jewish employer and boyhood friend, is vandalized by local Nazi thugs and Paul is forced to leave. Conflict escalates to murder; no one can escape involvement; the consequences will be long-lasting.

The Right Hand of Sleep is a powerful debut.