Incidents in the Rue Laugier

'I have reached the age when a woman begins to perceive that she is growing into the person whom she least plans to resemble: her mother.'

Nadine has always wanted her daughter Maud to be married and off her hands. When the two women are staying at Nadine's sister's house near Meaux they become part of a sophisticated wordly group into which neither Maud nor Edward Harrison a young visitor from England seem to fit.

Maud is swept off her feet by David Tyler a stylish irresponsible young man who robs her of her innocence and disappears. Edward forced into adulthood by his inheritance of a bookshop and thus a career takes Maud into his care. But for both of them the shadow of Tyler is always there illuminating their feelings of inadequacy disappointment and loss.