"Noah Selvaggio is a retired chemistry professor and widower living on the Upper West Side, but born in the South of France. He is days away from his first visit back to Nice since he was a child, bringing with him a handful of puzzling photos he's discovered from his mother's wartime years. But he receives a call from social services: Noah is the closest available relative of an eleven-year-old great-nephew he's never met, who urgently needs someone...

In Nice to recover the Queen's stolen snuff box, Lady Georgiana Rannoch participates in a Coco Chanel fashion show where a necklace also belonging to the Queen goes missing, forcing her to search for both priceless items and solve a murder.