The prequel to the best-selling Suite Francaise. Paris 1918, Bernard Jacquelain returns from the trenches a changed man. The city is a whirl of decadence and corruption and he embarks on a life of parties and shady business dealings, as well as an illicit affair.

But as another war threatens, everything around him starts to crumble, and the future for him and for France suddenly looks dangerously uncertain.