Paloma C. Candlewick

In Teplice, everyone washes away their worries in the great communal bathhouses fed by steaming mountain springs. But the morning peace is shattered when the city’s most beloved botanist is discovered dead in the cold plunge bath, his floating body surrounded by dried valerian roots. With the aldermen threatening to board up the baths and leave the town freezing in the autumn chill, four working-class regulars take the case into their own hands. Between steam treatments, spiced plum dumplings, and late-night inspection of the flume pipes, carpenter Jaromir, masseuse Zlatka, gong-striker Cedomir, and washerwoman Marika race to prove how cold water and clever woodcraft were used to commit the town's most unexpected crime.

Qillanqa understands moss far better than people. Inside her humid, plant-filled rooftop workshop overlooking the city skyline, she creates miniature glass worlds where everything stays balanced, quiet, and predictable. Her peaceful sanctuary is upended when Sayriuay, an impossibly cheerful architectural landscaper with a penchant for oversized sketches and bright sweaters, is assigned to co-design the conservatory's new public mezzanine. Sayriuay wants open breezeways and sprawling flower beds; Qillanqa insists on delicate, enclosed ecosystem capsules. As they share steamy tea, late-night drafting tables, and messy soil trays, their prickly professional rivalry softens into something deeply tender. When a sudden storm threatens their most fragile specimens, working together becomes the only way to build a sanctuary large enough for both of their hearts.