The novel takes place in the suburbs of Paris. The young Frenchwoman, on whose behalf the story is told, becomes a maid in the house of an American officer from NATO structures. She falls in love with her charming, generous, cheerful owner. And he hates his beautiful wife, who, under the influence of some hidden grief, is gradually sinking due to a penchant for alcohol. An American woman dies in a car accident, her husband commits suicide. And only in the last lines of the novel does it become clear what actually was the cause of both deaths.