Walter Gladstone came to Paris in the spring of 1923 to write the great American novel but instead wound up dead in an artificial lake. When the police dismiss the death as a drunken accident, Max is hired to find out the truth, but the truth turns out to be an elusive thing, hidden under layers of deceit and artifice. Jealous writers, battling artists and industrial spies all clamour for his attention and nothing is what it seems to be.