Summary

In Chapter 1, artist Clara Morrow was afraid as she followed her husband, Peter, into the Musée d’Art Contemporain where her artwork was on display. She had dreamed of having a solo show since she was a small child. In Clara’s nervousness, she dropped her purse. Peter, her husband, did not notice. Her friends Olivier and Gabri calmed her nerves and encouraged her to go into the exhibition hall. Peter, also an artist, had never been invited to display his work, even though he was the more successful artist of the two.

In Chapter 2, Chief Inspector Armand Ganache found himself speaking to François Marois, an art dealer, about Clara’s painting of the Virgin Mary as an old woman. Ganache heard Marois gasp when he recognized the subject of the portrait.

Meanwhile, Clara’s friend Myrna Landers, a retired psychologist...