简介：A village mob is in pursuit of an arsonist. Fleeing from their hysteria, a seventeen year-old boy stumbles into a country house. He finds its owners, Jacques and Catherine, leading lives of monotony and habit. Jacques is a painter who divides his time between his canvasses and painting lessons he gives to the mentally ill in a nearby institution. Catherine is ill at ease in her arid, almost hostile surroundings, nurturing some unspecified dissatisfaction.