A lawyer in Aix-en-Provence, Jean-Marc Sauvet has accepted a role in a local theater's summer play. He is thrilled to find that the lead actress is a legendary film star, but not so thrilled with the rude and unenthusiastic lead actor. When one of the actors goes missing for good, it's up to Sauvet's friend, magistrate Antoine Verlaque and police commissioner Bruno Paulik, to untangle the threads of a mystery—their tenth, following The Vanishing Museum on the Rue Mistral—that seems to get more complicated every day.

"Packed with luscious descriptions of food and flashes of cultural history, this is a fine way to relax in the company of old friends."—Publisher's Weekly