Pinkerton detective agency operative Phil Beaumont and his assistant Jane Turner come to Paris at the invitation of the French police. Here, in the Great Britain Hotel, the bodies of the Englishman Richard Forsyth and the daughter of the German aristocrat Sabine von Stuben were found. By all indications, there was a double suicide, and the case could turn into an international scandal. Is it suicide? asks Phil Beaumont. Not only reputations, but also the lives of many people depend on the answer to this question - first of all, the lives of Phil and Jane and even... the famous writer Gertrude Stein...