Charlotte Valandrey

England, 1600. Queen Elizabeth I promises Orlando, a young nobleman obsessed with poetry, that she will grant him land and fortune if he agrees to satisfy a very particular request.

1952, Paris. Nadia, a Red Diaper baby, has a sister, Polish parents, and at 15 is an active Communist. When cops beat her during an anti-American demonstration, she's rescued by a "Match" photographer. As the friendship becomes a love affair and her slogans are tested by new knowledge and emotion, some of the Red youth want to expel her. When she goes with Stéphane to a seaside photo shoot, her father goes to the police. Stéphane faces charges, so leaving to cover the war in Indochina looks appealing. In a parallel story, Nadia's mother meets again her prewar lover, released from Siberia, who challenges the French Reds with very real scars and word of Stalin's anti-Semitism.

A bombing raid makes travelling companions of a blind man, Fernand, and Antoine, a criminal. Fernand is a virgin and is depending on his new friend to find him a woman. But to Antoine, on the run, his fellow victim is more a burden than a boon.

When a brilliant artist and her husband become subject to a series of bizarre occurrences in their isolated house in Brittany they both suspect that the other person is responsible.

Jeanne Poisson, the headstrong, ambitious, witty and erudite, catches the eye and heart of French King Louis XV at a costumed ball. She masters the art of seduction well enough to become accepted even by the Queen, corpulent mother of ten. As a sensibly chosen Royal 'favorite' mistress she is soon ennobled Marquise of Pompadour to facilitate her introduction at court. The immature dauphin (crown prince) proves a bitter and unrelenting enemy, joined by his imposed Saxon bride, and his sister at her deathbed. Although friends at court help Pompadour return, her health gives way.

In 1924, female workers in a sardine cannery in Brittany went on strike.

The meeting of Manuel, a lady's dancer, Petrus, an unfortunate gambler, and Corinne, a fast-food waitress. The drifting of three drop-outs, three solitary dreamers, adventurous waverers.

The story is of a young man, Stevens, who returns to his native village after a five year exile caused by a violent quarrel with his father. The story revolves around the women in Stevens life and the affects of his presence.