The years just prior to the French Revolution were filled with conflict, although many chose to ignore the signals of the coming storm. The Palais-Royal was the scene of much gaiety and a constant round of pleasures—perfect cover for darker activities such as the murder of a Parisian actress. That same evening, her lover, Antoine Dubois, died in a fatal fall. Was his death a guilt-induced suicide?Soon word of Antoine's death reaches his stepdaughter, Anne Cartier, a young vaudeville actress with the Sadler's Wells company in London. She enlists the aid of the messenger, Colonel Paul de Saint-Martin, and his adjutant, Georges Charpentier, to cross with her to France to investigate.While in Paris, Anne, who is skilled in signing for the deaf, befriends Michou, a deaf, illiterate seamstress with a talent for puppetry. Michou gives Anne an entrée into the Palais-Royal, where her quest broadens to include an amateur theatrical society of dissolute young noblemen and several suspicious offic