Bernard Valcourt, a documentary filmmaker from Quebec, has been sent to the Rwandan capital Kigali to set up a television station.

He falls in love with a Rwandan girl, Gentille, who in reality is an ethnic Hutu, but she is often mistaken for a Tutsi.

Encouraged by his love for Gentille, and a desire to complete a documentary to bring the tragedy of AIDS to the attention of the outside world, Valcourt refuses to leave Rwanda.

The novel was translated into English as A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali by Patricia Claxton in 2003 (ISBN 0-676-97482-1).

Un dimanche à la piscine à Kigali was chosen for inclusion in the French version of Canada Reads, Le combat des livres, broadcast on Radio-Canada in 2004, where it was defended by writer, environmentalist and activist Laure Waridel.