On the body of a man found in the Tuileries Garden, investigators discovered a scrap of paper with a phone number, a book titled "Shagreen Skin," and a lighter from the Foreign Legion. At first it seems like just an unfortunate accident, but Major Julien Delestrange begins to doubt. A psychologist who joins the investigation discovers a connection between this case and three women who disappeared without a trace.
It turns out that all these women abandoned their children, handing them over to the state. The dead man also tried to find his son, by contacting an organization that helps children who were given up reunite with their biological parents.
In his novel, François Paasch makes you think about the consequences of our decisions and reminds us that some of them can be very tragic. This book is a national bestseller in France and received the "Quai des Orfèvres" literary award for the best detective novel.