Summary

The brief chapter “Today” describes a woman, Anita, rising at dawn after a sleepless night. She has a younger daughter, Laura, and a husband, Adam, who has been serving a sentence in jail. A woman Anita knew, named Adéle, drowned in a lake “four years, five months, and 13 days ago” (4), which is the same amount of time that Adam has been serving his sentence.

The chapter “A New Year’s Eve party” takes place 20 years prior in the city of Paris, when Adam and Anita were both 24 years old. At the time, Adam was in his fifth year of architecture school. He is an intensely private person who wanted to spend the holiday alone, before being persuaded to join the party at the last minute by a friend. Adam, who was born and raised in a more rural region...