An Argentine anthropologist hires Carvalho to search for her childhood friend Helga Mushnik. However, before Carvalho can properly begin his investigations, Helga is found dead in the subway - murdered. A homeless man, with whom Helga had lived in Barcelona for the last few years, is urgently suspected. Everything could have turned out differently, and Helga could have become a film diva: she had successfully auditioned for the lead role in the Argentine version of Emmanuelle back in her homeland; a career as an erotic film star seemed almost certain. In this first-time translated novel, Carvalho grapples with the pitfalls of a fax machine, as he boycotts the internet, struggles with the theories of the semiotics-enthusiast Inspector Lifante, and stirs up a few unrepentant supporters of the Argentine military dictatorship.