Hugo is 19 years old. Like every summer, he spends his holidays on an Atlantic island, in the small family house. But this year is different: Hugo has undergone a physical transformation and arrives with his girlfriend, Queen, a beautician whose lively chatter and long, glittery nails contrast sharply with the young man’s modesty and shyness. Before long, the couple becomes the focus of everyone’s attention.

During a book signing in Normandy, Annie Ernaux, 70, revisits her memories of the summer of 1958, when she was 17. That summer, she left her hometown to work as a camp counsellor. At the first party, the head counsellor set out to deflower her. Finding him handsome, she lets him do it, as if against her will... Her body becomes a foreign place for her, an offering to be sacrificed.