Arriving home one night, Ronnie Bart, an English journalist, finds a woman in his apartment. She is wearing only his dressing gown and eating the remains of his breakfast. Her stay is brief, for she is soon arrested by the police, accused of murdering a young man.
Trying to prove her innocence, Bart is drawn into a complex and dangerous affair.
Scotland and France have always had a close affinity, so it was only natural that Richard Grayson, a Scot by birth, should have taken a special interest when reading history at Cambridge in that most colourful period of French history, La Belle Epoque. All his Inspector Gautier novels are set in that period. He now lives in London.