Lucy Trent is accustomed to having the legend of her glamorous grandmother unearthed from time to time. Lucretia von Wolff was an infamous silent-screen start whose life ended abruptly in a bizarre double murder and suicide at the Ashwood film studios in 1952. When a body brutalized in a macabre echo of the 50-year-old case is found in the now derelict studios, disturbing facts about the past begin to emerge, all of which point back to the eerie tale of the child known as Alraune. In the ensuing murder investigation, Lucy discovers the truth about her family’s dark history, one that spans the glittering concert halls of 1920s Vienna through the bleak environs of wartime Auschwitz.