Girl with a plait

A SNAKE CHARMER, A MYSTERIOUS FIRE AND ONE ACCIDENTAL YOUNG DETECTIVE…

A night-time meeting of two lonely travellers on a deserted road in the summer of 1961 might have meant nothing – if one of them had not been accidental detective Ota Fink, a turner in civilian life. It is only because he gets lost on his way to the Orange Rocks valley that he bumps into a scantily clad girl who introduces herself as Viola Těšínská, wife of King Wenceslaus III.

After giving the attractive girl a lift home on the frame of his bicycle, Ota flees back to Prague to escape the rain. However, the mysterious "snake charmer" stays on his mind, as does a dying fire behind a nearby forest, which looks nothing like a campfire for roasting sausages.

Just a few days pass before Ota heads back to the place where he met Viola. But in the house where he took her, nobody has ever heard of her. Has she disappeared, or was she simply lying? On top of that, a new mystery emerges: who is the mysterious Haštal whom the police are asking about? Does he have something to do with the strange girl? And is Viola even still alive?