Bordeaux

Bordeaux is the primary backdrop of the novel. This is the city in Western, coastal France where the main character Maître Susane lives. She also has a law office "on the cathedral square" in the city, and hopes that this "distinguished address" will establish her name and reputation in the legal world (50). Maître lives not far from the office, and splits her time between these two locations. She lives by herself, and primarily converses with her housekeeper, Sharon.

Maître leaves Bordeaux when she visits her parents in La Réole and later when she stays with Sharon's brother and sister-in-law. These trips away from the city both confuse and clarify her Bordeaux life. When she visits her parents at the start of the novel, she feels that they are compromising her sense of reality. She therefore returns to Bordeaux and largely stops talking to them...