2003: a heat wave has settled over all of Europe. The authorities have yet to realize just how catastrophically extreme this weather event – which will be linked to thousands of deaths across the continent – really is. For Lily, it’s the first day of an apocalyptic new era.

Lily is a cab-driver; her passengers in the suffocating heat are a couple of elderly farmers. The man seems to be dying. He’s counting on seeing a faith healer in Cannes. It’s surely his last chance.

But Lily is distracted. Her mind is on her older daughter, Jessica, a teenager who is going through her first crushes… and her first heartbreak. She’s also thinking about her ex-husband, Nicolas, who left her for a younger woman, Mélanie, whose dead body is in the trunk of the cab. Lily’s plan is to toss the body at a dump as soon as she has dropped her passengers off.

As the stench of decay rises, each of the characters plays their role, full of love and violence.

Summer 2003, the heat wave is raging. Lily is a cabdriver. In the suffocating heat, she is driving a couple of elderly farmers, and is planning to get rid of a cumbersome package in the trunk of her car after she drops them off. As the tale progresses, the plot thickens, weaving a tight web of violent love stories. Christian Chavassieux offers readers a stunningly noir novel.