Marguerite arrives in Saint-Sulpice from Paris and meets Brigitte at the train station. Marguerite is twenty-four years old and she is about to start work as the live-in nurse for Jerome, an elderly and cantankerous man who lives alone and has been unwell for some time. Brigitte lives locally and is married to Henri, the village’s handsome hero, and the couple oversee the activity at Jerome’s large house and gardens, Rossignol (French for ‘Nightingale’).