Following the summer holiday which features in My Father's Glory, the family returns to Marseilles but Marcel still yearns for the hills.

Although only a few kilometers outside Marseilles, the journey to the holiday home is time consuming as public transport takes them only a short portion of the way and the rest is a walk along a long, winding road.

On a subsequent visit, Marcel meets her father, another eccentric who drinks absinthe to aid his poetic composition.

One day, when travelling to their house, the family encounters one of Marcel's father's former pupils, who now works in maintaining a canal which runs from the hills into Marseilles.

The employee points out to the family that this is a shortcut which will allow them to reach their house in a fraction of the journey time and offers them his spare key.

At the beginning of the summer holidays they make the journey again and Marcel's mother feels a great fear and trepidation of meeting the owner.

Marcel's father is devastated, believing a complaint could damage his career prospects and he could possibly lose his job as a school teacher.

Unfortunately during the ordeal between the canal workers and the caretaker they take the padlock, put it around the gate, and give the key to his dog so he can't leave the estate.