Diane adores her husband, and, of course, her children, and she just loves her job in a small publishing house. She lives in Paris, France. She's got it good.

Until the day she's literally stricken by the sight of Emilio, a young hydraulics engineer, "young, handsome and just passing through", who is working for a humanitarian organisation.

Diane climbs out of her domestic trench, and rushes headlong onto the dangerous road of amour fou. She sincerely believes that the second part of her life is a bout to begin ...

She's wrong: Emilio departs, leaving her high and dry. She is devastated by a "romantic waterloo" where she loses everything: her lover, her husband, her children, her health. Her relationship with a young novelist, François, whose second book she midwifes, eventually provides her with a means of coming to terms with the events in her life.