Dr Scarpetta and Marino start working on a new case after a body is found in a container arriving from Belgium.

Kay and Marino get in touch with European Interpol and with Jay Talley, who calls them and asks them to fly to Paris and meet the Chief Medical Examiner.

They discover that the body found in the container is a member of one of the richest and oldest families of Paris, the Chandonnes, who live in an ancient mansion on the Île St Louis.

Kay finds out that Lucy is in part involved in this case, since she is investigating a Miami group of weapons and drugs smugglers related to the Chandonnes, the "One Sixty-Fivers".

When they return to Richmond, Virginia, Kay and Marino deal with the case of a woman brutalized and killed in a little shop and with attempts from a member of Dr. Scarpetta's team to sabotage her.