Also known as The Two Brothers, this novel is set in a provincial French town after the Napoleonic wars. A widow, Agathe Bridau, dotes on her charming but unreliable younger son Philippe, a former soldier, while neglecting her gentler elder son Joseph, a gifted painter. The story follows the damage done by this favouritism and the way a selfish man can drain a family's resources and affection. It is a sober study of motherhood, ambition and moral failure.