Northwest France. May morning of 1819. Jeanne, a blond girl with eyes like blue agates, the daughter of Baron Le Pertuis de Vaud, packs her bags and looks out the window again: the rain does not stop ... And I want to go!
Jeanne had just returned to her parents' home from the monastery, where she was brought up “in strict custody” from the age of twelve. And finally, freedom, the beginning of life, and they, with dad and mom, go to “Poplar”, to the family castle on the seashore, to the village for the whole summer! The rain is not abating, but they are still coming. The crew has an eccentric, kind father, a very plump mom and a young maid Rosalie. The castle in “Topoli”, of course, is old, but my father sold one of his farms and put everything in order with this money: after all, he and his mother decided to give this castle to Jeanne. She will live there when she gets married ... In the meantime, they go there all summer.
The castle is very spacious, very cozy and quite messy: on the sides of the chest of drawers in the style of Louis XIV are two armchairs (think only!) In the style of Louis XV ... But this is freedom. You can run, walk and swim in the sea anywhere - sheer happiness, and all life ahead and, of course, love. It remains only to meet Him, and as soon as possible! Abbot Pico, a local cure, once having dinner at the Topoli, recalls during the dessert that he has a new parishioner Viscount de Lamar, charming, decent, quiet. On Sunday, Baroness and Jeanne go to Mass, and the cure introduces them to a young man. He soon makes his first visit, he is well brought up, and he is invited to dine next week. Viscount had lunch. Nothing has happened, nothing yet, he just looks at Jeanne with velvet-black eyes. Nobody knows anything yet - neither the baron with the baroness, nor Jeanne, nor even the reader, and yet the plot of the drama has already been completed ...
The viscount is constantly in their house, he helps Mommy “do the exercise”, the three of them — with his father and Jeanne — arranged a boat trip, his name is Julien, and Jeanne is full of forebodings of love, and finally a fascinating question sounds: “Do you want to be my wife? "
The rite is perfect. Zhanna is thrilled: how is it that - yesterday fell asleep as a girl, and today, now, standing at the altar, she became a woman! But why is Julien gently whispering that in the evening Joan will become his wife? Didn’t she ... become ?!
And now it's evening. Mom, poor, weeps, unable to do the last instructions of her daughter. Forced to take the father ...
Rosalie undresses Jeanne and for some reason roars in three streams, but Joan does not notice anything, she is in bed and waiting, not knowing what ...
Two or three pages of a special property follow - “... another leg slid on her leg, cold and hairy ...”
Then, during a honeymoon in Corsica, a woman quietly awakens in Jeanne, but it is strange: when she learns love with Julien, she sees more clearly that her husband is cowardly, greedy, arrogant and intolerably ordinary.
They return to “Poplar”, and from the very first night Julien remains in her room, and then somehow, right away, as if playing the part of the newlywed, she ceases to pay attention to Jeanne, forgets the razor, does not come out of the old home jacket and drinks eight glasses cognac after each meal. Joan is weary of melancholy, and here the always cheerful Rosalie has completely changed and gone sick. In the morning she slowly makes Jeanne's bed and suddenly drops to the floor ... In the lady's room, near her bed, the girl Rosalie gave birth to a boy.
Zhanna is excited, she wants to help Rosalie (they are sisters of milk), she needs to find the father of the child, get married, but Julien is categorical: the maid needs to be driven along with the illegitimate child! Jeanne asks Rosalie, and she only sobs. The husband is angry at all this, but for some reason he is returning "to the duties of love."
Winter is in the yard, it’s cold in the castle, Jeanne is unwell, and Julien desired. Jeanne asks him to postpone visits to the bedroom for a day or two. At night, Jeanne beats a terrible chill, she calls Rosalie, she does not respond, Jeanne barefoot, half-delirious, goes to her room, but Rosalie is not there. Feeling that she was dying, Jeanne rushes to wake Julien ... On the pillow next to his head is Rosalie's head.
It turned out that the well-mannered Viscount, when he had lunch for the first time in the “Poplars”, having lunch, did not leave, but crept into the attic, hid, and then “went” to Rosalie. And then everything resumed, after their return from Corsica.
Jeanne nearly died in a fever, and the doctor discovered that she was pregnant. All reconciled the village cure, who found a husband for Rosalie. And Jeanne gave birth to a boy. He was called Paul, and his love for Jeanne replaced everything else.
Misfortunes continue to pour on poor Jeanne: mother died, Julien started an affair next door - with the Countess de Furville, the jealous count discovered his lovers and killed them, presenting the case as an accident ... But Fifteen passed, he had to be sent to college. And now he was twenty, and he contacted a prostitute, they fled to London. The son pulls money from his mother and completely ruins. The old baron is busy, mortgages, mortgages the estate, suddenly dies ... Rosalie, an already old, but strong and clear-minded widow, returns to the house and takes care of the very weak Jeanne ...
Sold "Poplar", there was no other way. Jeanne and Rosalie live in a modest but comfortable house. Paul writes that his lover gave birth to a girl and is now dying. And Jeanne, the very Jeanne, who recently was full of the anticipation of life, survives the last days and recalls occasionally short, rare moments of love.
But Rosalie brings the girl, granddaughter, and Paul will come tomorrow, after the funeral. And life goes on, the very life that is not as good as Rosalie says, but not as bad as they think.
Jeanne and Rosalie recall how heavy, unending rain it was when they drove to the Poplar from Rouen.
