In 1915, the Schoudler and La Monnerie families are joined by the marriage of François and Jacqueline, and from that point a struggle over money, power, and status begins to unfold. Set in interwar France, the novel traces how family interests and individual ambition collide while the order of the ruling classes gradually starts to crack.

Through the fate of a family where power and wealth intersect, the novel offers a ruthless portrait of interwar French high society.