The Harpies

15 hrs. 18 min.

Language Russian

Author Joanna Chmielewska

Narrator Tatyana Nenarokomova

Description

Fate has not been too kind to Dorotka Pawlakowska. Her mother died in childbirth, and her father, having given his daughter his surname, considered his paternal duty fulfilled and took no further interest in his own child. So Dorotka was raised by her aunts—three of them, no less, and all utter harpies. They watched her every step, took every earned zloty, kept the girl at their beck and call—fetch this, bring that. In short, a modern-day Cinderella. At least Dorotka had a good-natured disposition.
But sometimes melancholy would creep in: what kind of life was this? Then suddenly a letter arrives from America: one Wanda Parker, the godmother of Dorotka's mother and apparently a millionairess, having spent half a century in the States, has decided to return to her homeland. She has no relatives left in Poland; her only close people are Dorotka and her aunts. Naturally, the harpies were not thrilled about the old woman's visit, and she turned out to be rather eccentric to boot. The one small consolation was that the millionairess drew up a will immediately upon arrival, leaving her fortune to them. True, the old dear is in fine health, but… And then suddenly… barely having made her will, the old woman dies. As it very soon turned out, not of natural causes. What do you think is the first question investigators ask in such cases? Correct: who benefits? In short, "all are suspects."