A young woman's corpse is found on top of Mount Pelée - Martinique. The identification requires a Parisian forensic police specialist. Captain Léna Valrose, an attractive colored young woman has everything going for her to replace the man intended for the task. However, although she's of Martiniquan descent it's the first time she sets foot on the island. Quite a shock for this young cop who grew up in Clermont-Ferrand and can't bear the heat nor spicy food. Captain Paul Ventura with whom she's to carry out the investigation is quite the opposite. After arriving from France twenty years ago he became more Martiniquan than the locals, speaks Martiniquan Creole and has taken to Ti-punch instead of Pastis. Both cops refer to police chief Brédas, a woman in her fifties toughened by thirty years in the criminal police. Her Achilles' heel is her son who's constantly flirting with delinquency. The trio's investigation constantly leads them back to the mysterious slopes of Mount Pelée, a central feature of this story. They have to confront beliefs and demons from the past, which arose after the terrible eruption that caused 30,000 casualties and destroyed Saint-Pierre, a town nicknamed 'Little Paris' on May 8th, 1902. The shadow and doom of Cyparis - the only survivor of the eruption locked up in his cell - loom over the case. The cops finally nail the young woman's murderer - she had been the runner-up of the Miss Saint-Pierre beauty pageant just before her death. He turns out to be a citizen above suspicion - When the investigation comes to an end Léna will not only have exposed the truth about the Mount Pelée murder but also have completed her personal quest to find her biological father. She never had met him as her mother had always denied his existence. Although the search proves rough it will lead her to become closer to Paul, her fellow inspector.
—Happy_Evil_Dude