Séverine takes a position as a live-in maid in a house of idleness and luxury. She's informed during her interview that the cleaning and daily meals are already attended to by servants of long-standing. Her duties, which are very few, are as compelling as they are erratic. As it becomes increasingly clear that her employer is subjecting her to a tenuous game of provocation and transgression, she resolves to find out precisely how far his obsessions might be pushed. What follows is a narrative that revolves around a double axis-that of obedience and disobedience, explicit and implicit rules, loyalty and treachery, and the twin heads of the imperial eagle whose icon is found in every region of the house.