Erik Desfosses

In the sumptuous setting of the Mont Blanc, a family secret in the form of a perfectly conserved body has remained buried deep in the ice for 15 years. Its reappearance will spark off many emotions. Everyone had believed that Bertrand Santini had been living happily abroad all those years. The difficult task of solving the mystery surrounding Bertrand Santini’s death falls to Police Lieutenant Martin Le Kerrec. From false leads to good intuition, from false suspects to true revelations, the young policeman will gently but determinedly untangle the painful secret weighing down on two families who have lived a lie for fifteen years.

Joseph Serettaz, a reputed guide from Chamonix, in the French Alps, is killed at the end of the 1930's during a climbing expedition with a rich industrialist from Milan. The latter is unhurt, although in a state of shock. When Zian Servettaz sets off to find his father’s body, destiny again takes a hand and he too is the victim of a fall, in which he fractures his cranium. The industrialist’s daughter Bianca would like to express her gratitude to the Servettaz family, but Zian rebuffs her kindness. Adaptation of three novels by Roger Frison-Roche (Premier de cordee, La grande crevasse, Retour a la montagne).