Set in the south of France, the novel follows two men, former diplomat Willy Ludley, who had been accused of a terrible act of treason years earlier, and Simon Milson, Ludley’s friend from Cambridge, now on assignment from the British foreign office to dig into Ludley's past. Milson finagles an invitation to the Ludley's house in the south of France, turns up with an underage school girl he meets in the train, and amidst much drinking, philosophical banter, and sexual temptation, they dig into the past.