Madame Marot, born and raised in Lausanne, in a strict honest family, marries for love. The newlyweds leave for Algeria, where Mr. Maro receives a prominent post. Fourteen years of life in Constantine give them prosperity, a family spirit, healthy, beautiful children.
These years outwardly changed Maro: he turned black like an Arab, turned gray and dried up, many mistook him for a native of Algeria. In Ms. Maro, too, no one would recognize the former girl.
Now her skin became silver, thinner, more golden, her skin became thinner, her hands became thinner, and in caring for them, in her hairstyle, in her underwear, in her clothes, she already showed some kind of excessive tidiness.
Mr. Maro’s time is filled with work, his wife lives with worries about him and the children, two pretty girls. Mrs. Maro is known as the best mistress and mother in Constantine.
Arriving in the city of Emil Du-Buis, the son of Ms. Bonnet, a long-time and good friend of Ms. Marot, is only nineteen years old. He grew up in Paris, is now studying law and is writing only verses that he understands.
A young man rents a Hashim villa for housing. Ms. Maro refers to Emil “with half-joking guidance, with the freedom that was so naturally allowed by the difference in years,” but soon discovers that she became “the first person” in the house for the young man.
In less than a month, God knows what happened to fall in love with him.
Madame Maro becomes silent. She is losing weight, trying to leave the house as little as possible, and increasingly examines her tired face in the mirror. Emil drives a woman crazy with her persecution and love letters. These obscure signs confuse Mr. Maro more and more. From September to January, Ms. Maro lives anxiously, painfully.
She tries to convince Emil to treat her like a mother, she says she’s aged, but the boy’s love does not go away. Emil dreams of her, burning with passion. One evening, Ms. Maro surrenders and goes with Emil to his villa. She warns the young man that after intimacy with him she will not be able to live on, and asks if he has "anything to die." Emil shows the woman a loaded revolver. After intimacy, Mrs. Maro asks Emil to shoot her.
In the last moments she was transformed. Kissing me and pulling away to see my face, she whispered to me in a whisper a few words so tender and touching that I could not repeat them.
Emil showers her beloved with flowers and shoots her in the temple twice. The young man promises to follow her, but the room is too light. He sees her pale face, madness seizes him. Emil rushes to the window and starts shooting into the air. He does not dare to shoot himself.
