Lola Jost, once of the Paris Police, is busy fending off boredom with a jigsaw puzzle when Gendarme Capitaine Hardy knocks on her door. Arnaud Mars - a former police divisionnaire on the run after being implicated in a seismic defence contracts scandal - has been found dead in Abidjan in they Ivory Coast. The Smith and Wesson that killed him belongs to Commandant Sacha Duguin, a longstanding friend of Lola's.
Lola, convinced of Duguin's innocence, throws off her torpor. Together with her occasional partner in crime fighting Ingrid Diesel - who she must first extract from Las Vegas - she embarks on a journey from Africa back to France via Hong Kong, once again on a quest to clear an old friend's name.
Who was really behind Mars' death? And what is it that has made Duguin the ideal scapegoat?