On the night of 22nd December 1980 a plane crashes on the Franco-Swiss border and engulfed in flames. 168 out of 169 passengers are killed instantly. The miraculous sole-survivor is a newborn baby.
But the identity of the child is unknown, and two families - one rich and affluent, and the other poor - step forward to claim her. So begins a private investigation that wil go on for the next 18 years . . .
The novel opens on the eve of the girl's eighteenth birthday. For years now Credule Grand-Duc has been trying to uncover the truth about the child's identity - is she Emilie or Lyse-Rose?. And now, it seems he has discovered a terrible secret. He plans to take his own life, but not beforehe places his account of the investigation in the girl's hands. However someone else gets to him first...