Metropolis is set in 2026, in a technologically advanced city, which is sustained by the existence of an underground society of laborers, a futuristic urban dystopia and follows the attempts of Freder, the wealthy son of the city's ruler and Maria, a poor worker, to overcome the vast gulf separating the classes of their city. It contains bits of the story that got lost on the cutting-room floor; in a very real way it is the only way to understand the film.

Michael Joseph of The Bookman wrote about the novel: "It is a remarkable piece of work, skilfully reproducing the atmosphere one has come to associate with the most ambitious German film productions. Suggestive in many respects of the dramatic work of Karel Capek and of the earlier fantastic romances of H. G. Wells, in treatment it is an interesting example of expressionist literature. ... Metropolis is one of the most powerful novels I have read and one which may capture a large public both in America and England if it does not prove too bewildering to the plain reader."