Capital of the crime passionel. Paris is electric with excitement. Everywhere preparations are underway for the universal exhibition and the new century - an age of speed and modernity. But the sensuous spectacle of the belle Ôepoque is shadowed by racial and social tensions. Street demos are rampant. Anti-Semites vie with the defenders of justice and the rights of man. Scientists propose hereditary explanations for the rise and rise of murder, madness and nervous disorders. The police force is embattled, exposed in a scandal-mongering press. How can they keep the order citizens want, if their accusers champion the individual liberties of even prostitutes and criminals?In the midst of all this, the body of a beautiful woman is found in the Seine. Her corpse is not the first to turn up in river or canal or subway shaft.