The year is 1898. Héloïse, 9 years old, comes from a family belonging to the anti-Dreyfus and anti-Semitic Parisian high bourgeoisie. In a spirit of revolt, she begins a love affair with Maxime, a young Jewish journalist. During a terrible quarrel with her father, the latter suffers a stroke and dies. To get her away from Maxime, her mother Mathilde and her cousin Olympe take Héloïse on a trip to the Orient. After Cairo and the Pyramids, they go up the Nile and cross the desert in a caravan.

First performed in 1732, Marivaux's play on the theme of cross-dressing, depicts the stratagems of the young princess Léonide in love with Agis, the legitimate heir to the throne of Sparta. To meet the prince, watched over by the philosopher Hermocrates and his sister, Léonide disguises herself as a man and seduces the whole household.

Having both suffered extreme losses, two disparate souls try to form a relationship for consolation rather than romance.