Edith Hardy runs a small detective agency off an unassuming alley in the 13th arrondissement. It's the 1950s, and foreign forces are busy vying for power in a Paris still recovering from World War II. Edith has a good heart and a missing husband, and her attempts to do right by her small world get her caught up in far larger, darker affairs. A classic Pierre Christin script—a strong sense of place and history, humane leftist sympathies—combines with Annie Goetzinger's indelible artwork to deliver a stylish mystery for fans of classy whodunits.

Ever calm, classy, and resourceful, Edith Hardy is on the case again. When pharmaceutical magnate Le Cauchois asks her to wangle an invitation to the Red Baroness's exclusive gatherings of Soviet sympathizers, Edith isn't sure she should say yes—until an invitation falls right in her lap. Next thing, she's off to the Baroness's château in the snowy Ardennes, where she runs smack dab into a triangle of intrigue. Le Cauchois is working for French intelligence, the Baroness with the Russians, and a handsome acquaintance for the CIA—a convenient fellow to have around when a lady lands herself in hot water!

Unsolved cases come home to roost in Edith Hardy's latest caper, rounding off the first trilogy of the detective's adventures. When secret services in France and America start pulling strings—not to mention the machinations of a certain pharmaceutical industrialist—Edith winds up behind the Iron Curtain, in Moscow! But is she there to recover the legacy of state painter Alexis Limonovich... or save naive young chemist Antoine Dubreuil from being manipulated? Meanwhile, just what skullduggery is Edith's enterprising assistant Victor up to with an art forger, a carnival performer, his bear, and a midnight break-in? One thing's for sure: it all adds up to classy intrigue!