Plot
Nancy Drew travels to Paris to work undercover as an assistant to Minette, an up-and-coming couture fashion designer who has lately been acting bizarre and erratic. Minette has been throwing temper tantrums and firing her employees without cause, is dangerously behind schedule, and refuses to be seen without a mask covering her whole face. Nancy is tasked with uncovering the reasons behind Minette's strange behavior.
When Nancy arrives in Paris at the moulin where Minette's studio is located, she finds Minette screaming at her other assistant, a young aspiring fashion designer named Heather McKay. Heather later explains to Nancy that Minette has been commissioned to design a dress for the First Lady of France to wear to the upcoming World Summit.
Nancy performs various chores and errands for Minette, and travels around Paris to meet some of her associates: Jing Jing "JJ" Ling, an Australian model who serves as a living fitting model for Minette's dresses; Dieter von Schwesterkrank, a fashion photographer who used to be romantically involved with Minette; and Jean-Michel Traquenard, a local fashion magazine editor.
Shortly after Nancy arrives, she intercepts an anonymous letter that threatens Minette's life. Heather explains that the letters, along with equally threatening phone calls and deliveries of dead flowers, have been going on for months. Nancy also learns that JJ was tricked into her current contract with Minette; Dieter is still bitter and confused about Minette suddenly ending their relationship; Jean-Michel recently wrote a feature on Minette that focused mainly on her mysterious mask; and Heather is hoping to soon cut ties with Minette and become an independent fashion designer.
While running an errand for Minette, Nancy runs into Dieter; he refuses to acknowledge her and runs away, leaving behind a newspaper clipping of an obituary for a woman named Noisette Tornade. Noisette, who was the previous owner of the moulin that is now Minette's studio, was a translator for the Germans during World War II who secretly moonlighted as a coder for the French Resistance. After talking to a local historian, Nancy learns that Noisette Tornade was romantically involved with Dieter's late great-uncle, Hans von Schwesterkrank.
Nancy finds evidence that Heather wrote at least one of the threatening letters to Minette. When Nancy confronts Heather, she admits to writing one letter in a fit of jealousy because she has a crush on Dieter, whom Minette was dating at the time. [a]
Dieter later tells Nancy that he initially only dated Minette in an attempt to gain more information on Noisette Tornade, but unexpectedly fell in love with her in the process. Later, someone places a bomb on the door to Minette's studio, and Nancy must defuse it before Minette opens the door.
Nancy follows clues and solves puzzles, including exploring the Parisian catacombs and using a decoding machine from WWII, before finding a secret room underneath the moulin that is home to stained-glass art pieces stolen and hidden by Noisette Tornade during the war. From this room, Nancy overhears Minette discussing with two accomplices her plan to bug the dress she is designing for the First Lady so they can spy on her during the World Summit. The accomplices have been sending the threats, with Minette's knowledge, and are planning to pay Minette a handsome sum of money for the dress. When Nancy tries to get the dress so she can take it to the police, she is intercepted by Minette, whom she must defeat in a martial arts fight. After Minette is defeated, her mask falls off, revealing a tattoo of an alien on her cheek. The stained-glass art pieces are returned to their churches, Minette and her accomplices are arrested, and Heather takes over Minette's spring show. [b]
- ↑ The game allows the player to choose whether or not Nancy tells Minette about Heather's letter. Choosing to tell Minette will result in Heather getting fired and being absent for the remainder of the game.
- ↑ If the player has opted to tell Minette about Heather's threatening letter, resulting in Heather getting fired, Nancy writes that she was not invited to the show. If not, Nancy writes that Heather asked her to walk the runway in the show.
