American novelist Helen Hancock is in Paris to research her work-in-progress and teach a writing class when she discovers a spy camera hidden in her room at the luxury Hotel Sorbonne. Hancock notifies the US embassy, which dispatches former FBI profiler Hugo Marston to investigate. Almost immediately the stakes are raised when a bell-hop is found dead in the hotel's stairwell. Police tell Hugo they have discovered evidence on the dead man's computer suggesting that he was the one who bugged Hancock's room. The next day things become even more complicated when a salacious video clip explodes across the Internet showing Hancock in the embrace of Ambrosio Silva, one of her writing students--both are naked and nothing is left to the imagination. But when Hugo tries to find him, his investigation leads only to Silva's dead body. He too has been murdered. Through a series of sharp deductions, Hugo uncovers new evidence pointing to the most surprising suspect of all. A close call with a dark figure on the steps of his own apartment building proves that he's on the right track and leaves no doubt that he is next on the hit list