Andrew Blake decides to change his life drastically. There are plenty of reasons: his wife has died, his daughter is married and moved to live in America, and his beloved job has become uninteresting. Blake hands over the management of the business to his secretary, moves from his native England to France, and hires himself… as a majordomo in an estate located in a remote province.
At first glance, the residents there are not very pleasant: a closed-off, arrogant mistress; a harsh cook—an old maid—who can be affectionate only with her cat named Mephistopheles; a young maid suffering from unrequited love; a quirky, reclusive butler; a cheeky teenager of fourteen who still hasn’t learned how to read…
Where am I? I need to run from here, Blake decides. But he stays for a day, then for a week, then for a month…