Will the banquet at the winery Château Goudard in the environs of Avignon, acquired exactly twenty-five years ago by the American Verne, be as glamorous as planned? Or will there be a funeral reception instead of a banquet? Has a crime been committed? A crime of passion and jealousy, perhaps, over Verne's charming daughter-in-law Francine? Who is the victim? After all, there are two sons: not only Francine's husband John, who resembles his father so disturbingly, but also Paul, who makes the women melt with his ballads. Verne has a foreboding of calamity because he knows John's thoughts the way he knows his own, an affliction for which he himself is responsible