The Steaming Vats of Teplice

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.