The strangest thing about this story is that it’s true. In 1952, Argentina’s beloved First Lady, Eva Per�n, died of cancer at the age of thirty-three. A renowned embalmer was commissioned by the grieving Juan Per�n to preserve her body for display, and Argentines flocked to be near “Evita.” Three years later, when his government was overthrown by a military coup, Per�n fled the country before he could make arrangements for the transportation of his wife’s body. The military junta now in control kidnapped the corpse; so afraid were they of Eva’s symbolic power that they even made it illegal to utter her name. Thus began the two-decade journey of Eva’s body throughout Europe and eventually back to Argentina.