"Buried deep in rural France, little remains of the isolated hamlet of the Three Lone Girls, save a few houses and a curiously assembled quartet: Patrice Bergogne, inheritor of his family's farm; his wife, Marion; their daughter, Ida; and their neighbor, Christine, an artist. While Patrice plans a surprise for his wife's fortieth birthday, inexplicable events start to disrupt the hamlet's quiet existence: anonymous, menacing letters, an unfamiliar...

It's been only a few weeks since Police Chief Bruno Courreges said goodbye to his lover and partner in justice, and a mystery is precisely what he needs to distract him from heartbreak. And that's what he gets when a research station for genetically modified crops is burned down. Bruno suspects the fervent environmentalists who live nearby, but the fire is only the first in a string of intrigues centering on the fertile soil of Saint Denis.