Her publisher forces Marianne to rewrite the manuscript of a novel she wrote and burned in a fit of anguish. Her obsession with her story where the characters she creates murder her own husband becomes overwhelming. She comes to believe he is leading a double life and she imagines the worst. As a matter of fact, her husband Robert is leading a double life: every day, at noon, for a year, he has locked himself up in a small hotel room to also write a novel.

À Montréal, en 1945, quelques mois après la fin de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, Jean Thibault, alias IXE-13, le meilleur agent des services secrets canadiens, est maintenant le respecté propriétaire du Crystal Club, dans le Red Light, et d’un ancien hôtel situé au-dessus du club ayant déjà appartenu à la mafia.