The Scarlet Ball

The invitations arrive without a signature.

An ivory card. A scarlet seal. An address on the Right Bank that does not appear in any directory.

For years, Maison S. was the private meeting place of Parisian writers, aristocrats, actresses, exiles, and libertines. Its guests came to explore the dangerous border between being hidden and being known. Inside the house, ordinary identities were left at the door. Desire was given manners, ceremony, and a language of its own.

Then, in the spring of 1968, Maison S. abruptly closed.

Its hostess disappeared. Its members scattered. And the house’s scarlet ledger—a record of every promise made within its walls—vanished with them.

Now, on October 31, the house will open for one final masquerade.

The surviving members have been summoned. Strangers have received invitations meant for someone else. Somewhere among them is the person carrying the missing ledger—and before midnight, the guests must decide whether its secrets will be revealed, destroyed, or passed to a new generation.

Everyone will arrive masked.

No one will know who is a guest, an initiate, a witness, or the heir to Maison S.