1906. The third Countess of Prague Mystery finds Trixie von Falklenburg commissioned for her first truly professional investigation, but it will be five years before she can close a case that begins when the body of Dr. Bohuslav Tenkl is found drowned in the tank atop Prague's Letna water tower. Clues to the mystery of his disappearance lie not only in his audacious bank fraud but in the attention this creates in Prague's criminal underworld. The fraud is so complex, yet so neat, that Trixie feels it can only be the work of master criminal, Vasily Pilipenko. From the shrine of three hundred and seventy mummified martyrs in a church crypt on the shores of today's Croatia to the incalculable extravagancies of a Prussian prince in Silesia, virtually bankrupted by rebuilding the biggest castle in Europe, Trixie doggedly solves the mystery - but in the end wonders if the stolen millions should ever be returned...