Paris. Winter 1750. Hoping for a better life, former prostitute Madeleine gets a job as a maid in the house of the famous watchmaker Reinhart. On the instructions of the police, the girl must find out what the watchmaker really does, because persistent rumors are circulating around the city that Reinhart creates his outlandish mechanisms - bejeweled birds, silver spiders, rabbits, bats - using magic, defying the laws of nature. But in the watchmaker’s house, Madeleine feels extremely uncomfortable: she feels as if she is constantly under the gun of prying eyes. Events take an even more sinister turn when children begin to disappear from the streets. Madeleine, determined to find out the truth, realizes with horror that she may be dealing with a conspiracy that leads to the very heart of Versailles. But what is at the heart of this conspiracy? Who is this groovy girl? And what is Madeleine really looking for? The Wind-Up Girl is a stunning story about obsession, illusions and the price of freedom. For the first time in Russian!