Summary

After Catherine divorced Antoine, Catherine move in with a man referred to in the novel only as Ducon. Ducon was also divorced and had two children. Ducon had a son and a daughter. Catherine had attained sole custody of her daughters. Violaine was five years old when Catherine and her daughters moved in with Ducon. The two adults and four children temporarily lived in a house in the French countryside. Catherine paid for renovations on the house with money she had secretly stolen from Antoine. Violaine and Elsa sometime enjoyed life in that house, although Catherine and Ducon were often angry and domineering, and they even sometimes hit the children. Catherine and Ducon eventually married, make them co-owners of the country house and the land immediately surrounding it. However, Catherine soon discovered that Ducon was having an affair with his secretary, and so Catherine...