Summary

The novel opens in the 1960s in Lacoste, a village in the south of France. The story focuses on the upper-class Melrose family, who is vacationing there. At the beginning of the novel, David Melrose—a medical doctor and the patriarch of the family—is slowly killing ants by his vacation house using a water hose. Yvette, one of the French servants, is carrying a heavy basket of laundry into the house. David stops her and makes idle conversation so that her arms will grow pained by the weight of the laundry basket. The narrative then shifts to David’s wife, Eleanor Melrose. Eleanor is originally American. Eleanor feels very ill that day. She walks to the driveway to admire her Buick car, which she likes so much because her husband never drives it or even sits in it. The narration states that David...