In Montreal in the spring of 1990, a woman named X falls in love with Christophe, a sometimes poet fifteen years her senior. As the political climate intensifies through the summer months, their relationship devolves into silence and her emotional stability begins to weaken. By the autumn she loses all grip on reality when circumstances reveal that Christophe, the man she loves, is not who she believed him to be. Her recourse is to retreat inwards to the heart of a metaphorical hell.