French writer recalls her start as the country wife of a Paris publisher who called her erotic work his own.

When, before the revolution, accidentally arrested, the philistine - a tsarist civil servant of high status - falls in deep, lethargic sleep. 20 years later he wakes up and finds himself in a post-revolutionary, still young Soviet Union. He is stunned. He is shocked. But a philistine always finds his way.

Helena, 29, a single mother with an 11-year-old daughter, is a moderately successful actress who earns a living as an escort in the sex industry. Her relationship with her own mother, a singing teacher, is tense, and she’s also increasingly annoyed with her job. Meeting David offers her an opportunity.

Berlin. Greta, 40, architect, mother of a 12-year-old son, recently unemployed. She does everything in her power to keep hanging on in there, torn between the pressure to conform and the spirit of contradiction.