In Nice, where she moved to start her life over, Armande is hit by a car and killed shortly before she turns 50.

Accident? Suicide? At the funeral, her ex-husband, Christophe; her friends Emilien and Patricia; their children, Aubin and Margaux, explore the past and wonder what really happened. Over the course of a single half-day, the interior monologues follow, echo and reply to each other, with the what is spoken and what is left unsaid intertwining to paint to the portrait of two families whose fates became twisted together to the breaking point.

Each character in turn draws readers into considerations corresponding to their own age (the parents are in their fifties; the children, their twenties), everyone can identify with the subjects: what is love, how do you make it last? What role does sexuality play in it? Is betrayal the only cure for renouncement? Can you protect yourself without having illusions about who you really are? What ties bind us to our children? What lives, and what deaths, are we responsible for?

With great psychological insight, the author portrays the lives of two bourgeois families who would seem to be beyond reproach, but who have their lies and divisions. With consummate craft, and an efficient, flowing style, Etienne Deslaumes takes on the role of a court clerk, carefully noting his characters’moods, doubts and regrets. Despite conventional morals and the characters’ occasional issues with truth-telling, readers can’t help but be drawn to them.