Everything in Elsa Labbe's life scems calm and ordered. She is a successful psychologist; she has an adorable daughter Laure, and is passionately devoted to the cause of reason and science. Then she discovers her daughter's heroin addiction. Elsa abandons everything to try and save her child's life.

This complex study of addiction, obsession and maternal love is by one of France's most distinguished novelists, the author of the acclaimed Les Mots Pour Le Dire, published in English as The Words to Say It in 1984.