A retired couple living in Paris at Le Havre, with his two son. The youngest, John, is blond and wise Peter, the eldest, and black won. Their peaceful life is flowing, adorned with fishing parties at sea or on the beach when a grain explodes. The sky darkens. Winds are unleashed, chasing happiness. In dying, an old family friend leaves his fortune to Jean. Why only to John? Peter thinks night and day. He dives into the past of her mother, looking for the secret poison. The intense emotion, history and cruel real, smells of the sea, the famous light from the mouth of the Seine make this novel a masterpiece of Maupassant.