After spending 10 years in Paris becoming a talented chef, young Laura Fanton decides to return to her hometown in the mountainous Cevennes area of France to turn her family home and property into an hotel. She was raised by her grandfather after the death of her parents. Many bad rumors about her family circulated in the small village so her grandfather took her away at a young age. Upon her return she discovers the rumors still circulating and she gets the feeling she is not wanted there but can't get anyone to tell her why. Shortly after her return, the brutal murders of two of her closest friends occur, and she herself is terrorized. It's obvious someone wants her out of the way. As she investigates, she discovers some frightening truths.

In Tourtoirac, Périgord, Isabelle Maurin, newly crowned Queen of Araucania, is found decapitated in the château she had just inherited. Emma Lambert, a young police lieutenant from Bordeaux, joins Sacha Besson, a local gendarme, to investigate. Emma, a transgender woman, conceals that she is the daughter of Julie Dupuy, the village doctor and mayor, with whom relations soured after her transition. As more murders point to the contested legacy of the 19th-century Kingdom of Araucania, Emma and Sacha must navigate a tangle of hidden identities, buried secrets, and dangerous ambitions—while confronting their own growing attraction.