The novel takes place on the French Riviera in the spring of 2002. The main character, Leonard Moreno, an embalmer by profession, has an extensive clientele among wealthy people who do not want to part with their loved ones after their death. One day, Blanche Andrieu, the wife of one of the local aristocrats, approaches him with a request to embalm her eight-year-old daughter, who died in an accident. Examining the corpse of little Elilu, Leonard discovers traces of numerous beatings and begins to suspect that the girl was killed...