When Dr. Urs Stoller's body washes up on the Lac Léman beach, no one is sad. His wife, Maria-Elena, a chemist at a pharmaceutical company, is more upset that her lover is reuniting with his wife. Dr. Stoller is the thesis advisor for his mistress, Mireille. Stoller has given a fake evaluation on a group of 16th-century drawings Mireille found in a dumpster. Annie Young, free-lance writer and part-time historian, and Mireille are working with their auctioneer friends on a catalogue for the biggest auction the men have run yet. The auctioneers make sure that Mireille gets a real evaluation on the drawings she found. The girls learn more about the artist, who did not fit into the strict regimented society of 16th-century Calvinistic Geneva. Annie's fiancé, Roger Perret from Argelès, France arranges an exchange program to Geneva so he can be with Annie and is assigned to the Stoller case with surprising consequences.
