More than half a century ago, in a remote Corsican village, the beautiful Margot loses her newborn daughter to a tragedy that reaches beyond the disputed island. Sixty years later, Emily, an erudite and tenured professor of literature at the University of Berkeley discovers a novel that destroys her very foundations and leads her to the edge of disaster. Can Margot lead young film director Amanda tot he truth that will save them all?

A small collection of short stories and essays revolving around the darker side of love, viewed from many angles: the self-love of a prostitute, a middle-aged woman who returns to an unhappy marriage after twenty years to nurse her dying husband, disillusion and gender betrayal under the elms of a prestigious university... but all is not lost, for there is beauty too, even in the darkest heart of love.