A well-known French prostitute (Kathy Bates) sets up her son (Rupert Friend) with a fellow courtesan (Michelle Pfeiffer) to learn the ways of love, not expecting the two to continue their affair years down the road, when the chance for the man to marry into wealth threatens to destroy their romance. Stephen Frears (Dangerous Liaisons) helms the 1920s period Pathe Pictures/Miramax co-production based on the Colette novella.