Spring, 1892. A series of anarchist bombings have struck terror across Paris. In the chaos, the city's beloved Elzévir bookshop suffers a break-in: but the thief runs away with only a worthless decorative goblet. Then, the aristocratic Englishwoman who entrusted it to the bookshop is murdered.
It seems this goblet has a secret worth killing for. As the body count rises, Victor Legris and the Elzévir booksellers track the murderer across a city wracked by political turmoil in a deadly race to uncover the truth.