Contessa Carlotta Di Ponti, stunningly beautiful and sole heir to a vast fortune, has finally escaped her abusive marriage and is looking to find true love in Saint-Tropez. She soon meets the colourful jetsetters and hangers-on who populate the Mediterranean paradise every summer, including Fabrizio Bricconni, gigolo and long-suffering toyboy of an ageing socialite. The party season kicks off with a spectacular bash at billionaire Harry Silver's palatial mansion, but tragedy soon strikes and, amid the social glitz and the parties, a series of bizarre and increasingly dangerous incidents occurs. Could seemingly innocuous events - a bad oyster, a fatal wasp sting, a faulty funicular - mean something more sinister? It is up to glamorous detective Gabrielle Poulpe to solve the mystery, or life in Saint-Tropez could be over for ever ...