In which Madame Bridau and her son Joseph return to their ancestral town of Issoudun, confronting the provincial ways and wary society that greets them with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion, while old alliances and rivalries begin to unfold within the closely observed household of the Hochons. Meanwhile, the local knights of idleness concoct mischievous plans against their unwelcome guests, and the delicate dance of family tensions and social manoeuvres sets the stage for the trials that lay ahead.