Sepulchre

One girl in the past, one girl in the present.

A Parisian debutante accompanies her brother for a stay in the countryside of uncertain duration.  Leonie loves her brother Anatole but is certainly not blind to the freely available sins easily accessed by a young man in such a town, and of the wisdom in leaving them firmly behind.  Anatole is still a lover in mourning, and Leonie would prefer to remain with her brother than be extra baggage in her mother's life as she tries to ensnare herself another husband and in the process, secure the future of them all.   It is a turbulent time to be away from all that you know, and in addition both the country house and its mistress are unnerving to the impressionable Leonie.

Meredith Martin in the present day is also far from things familiar to her, as she embarks on a trip through southern France to do a little detecting for her own purposes.  L'Hotel Domaine de La Cade overlooking the spa town of Rennes-Les-Baines is where she hopes her novel on Claude Debussy will come alive.  The preparation work in London on this trip and six years prior of research have led her to this one place - and a looming publishing deadline impresses the importance of the visit upon her also.   A unexpected Tarot reading and the shock of seeing her face in the cards of a little known Tarot discipline diverts Meredith away from her original mission, and instead to investigating the mysteries of her own family history.