Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann, who transformed Paris from a filthy and haphazard medieval city into the jewel of Europe, is rumored on his deathbed to have wished all his work undone. Why? The answer lies in the story of Madeleine, a foundling from the magical old world Haussmann destroyed; of de Fonce, a '"demolition man" who sold the rubble of Paris as antiques; and of a three-sided affair that reveals the moral bankruptcy of the city, a corruption hidden by the transformative work of its brilliant architect.