Cara Black's riveting 19th installment in her New York Times bestselling Parisian detective series entangles private investigator Aim e Leduc in a dangerous web of international spycraft, post-colonial Franco-African politics, and neighborhood secrets in Paris's 12th arrondissement.

Parisian private investigator Aim e Leduc is about to go onstage to deliver the keynote address at a tech conference that is sure to secure Leduc Detective some much-needed business contracts when she gets an emergency phone call from her daughter's playgroup: Aim e's own mother, who was supposed to pick Chloe up, never showed. Abandoning her hard-won speaking gig, Aim e rushes to get Chloe, annoyed that her mother has let her down yet again.

But as Aim e and Chloe are leaving the playground, Aim e witnesses the body of a homeless woman being wheeled away from the neighboring convent, where nuns run a soup kitchen. The last person anyone saw the dead woman talking to was Aim e's mother, who has vanished. Trying to figure out what happened to Sydney Leduc, Aim e tracks down the dead woman's possessions, which include a huge amount of cash. What did Sydney stumble into? Is she in trouble?