Alicia Redding-McGilvary, a casualty-room nurse from London, is vacationing alone on the French Riviera during the last few weeks of the summer, 1995. While sunning herself on the beach of a secluded Mediterranean Sea inlet connected to the DuBois Inn Bed and Breakfast, she spots a luxurious yacht moored a short distance from the shore. As Alicia studies the yacht, she observes a man on the deck dumping a blue bundle into the sea. The sound of the splash Alicia hears as the bundle hits the water causes her to shiver and she wonders what was in the bundle. While still thinking about the bundle, Alicia notices that the man on deck is peering at her through binoculars, and waves to him. The man does not wave back.Without realizing it, this sighting is about to send Alicia on a perilous journey filled with murder. What would you do if you were to be confronted by buried treasure and modern-day pirates? Alicia enlists the help of Esther DuBois, the owner of the Inn, in assisting Inspector Felix Grenier and Detective Frank Louis of the Toulon police to untangle the mystery surrounding the bundle thrown overboard. Together the four solve a crime spree perpetrated by two life-long criminals, John Harrow and Andrew Smith.The perpetrators leave a path of murder and clues from Rouen to the Riviera to the orchards and vineyards of the Loire Valley. Travel with Alicia from the Netherlands to Toulon, Marseilles, Cassis and Cannes as she puts the pieces of the puzzle together for the police.