The novel is set in a small town in Cévennes and concerns two pairs of mixed gender dysfunctional adult siblings, one French and one English who become entangled in a dispute over property.
Her older brother terrorized her when they were children and as an adult lives a lonely life in their childhood home, which he has partially ruined through hoarding.
Aramon, Audrun's brother, continues to make her life hell, telling her that the small shack she built near their childhood home is an eyesore and if any of it crosses onto his property line he will tear it down.
Audrun continues to feed Aramon's paranoia and, after he finds Anthony's car in his garage, he withdraws the house for sale and bars all visitors.
In actuality, after an unsatisfactory viewing of another country home, Anthony had decided to buy Mas Lunel and Audrun, wanting to block the sale, persuaded him to accompany her to the river where she murdered him, planted the body in a small pool, and then hid his car in Aramon's garage.
One day Audrun decides to visit him, bringing him a branch of white cherry blossom which they both remember as a positive memory from when they were children.