Lacey is busting with excitement for her first trip to France. She'll be with her friend Magda Rousseau, corset creator for D.C.'s wealthiest (and kinkiest) citizens. And—best of all—the trip's on her newspaper's dime, since she'll supposedly be there to report on haute couture. The real reason for the trip, though, is the Rousseau family mystère: the whereabouts of a lost corset lined with jewels supposedly stolen from Russia after the assassination of Czar Nicholas's family. But just before the big adventure, someone poisons Magda. Could it have something to do with the priceless corset? To find out, Lacey must follow a thread from Normandy to New Orleans....