Every village, every person, has a secret...none more so than the inhabitants of this isolated, murky village whose fate relies on the luring of two unsuspecting pawns to satisfy their appetite and determine their being.

On the eve of retirement a middle class, judgmental snob discovers her husband has been having an affair with her best friend and is forced into exile with her bohemian sister who lives on an impoverished inner-city council estate.

Matthew Morgan is a retired American professor in his eighties, a widower. He lives in Paris and speaks no French. Since his wife's death, he's marking time. His curiosity is piqued when he meets Pauline Laubie, half his age, a dance instructor. She's also a solitary person, but wants the connection of family. She believes she's found that in Matthew, and she attends to him during a hospitalization. When his two adult children arrive from the U.S. to check on their father, they are certain...