- An English schoolteacher meets his lookalike, a French count; and unwillingly swaps identities with him.
- On a vacation in France from his nondescript job and life, John Barratt encounters a titled but impoverished French nobleman who looks exactly like him. The nobleman gets John drunk, and switches places with him to take a breather from his failing business and too-complicated life. John tries to convince everyone he is not who they think he is, but he begins to get more and more involved with the count's family, including an unhappy wife, domineering mother, lonely but talented young daughter, bitter spinster sister and the expected mistress. As John gets to know them he feels he can help them with their problems, but is also becoming used to his borrowed life, which has given him a purpose for the first time.—Ron Kerrigan <mvg@whidbey.com>
- Lamenting his life, staid Brit John Barratt, who teaches French at a provincial university, is in France, Paris more specifically, for the holidays as usual, this time however not giving much thought to what he will do i.e. return to Britain or not, after what would be the official end of his vacation. He finally understands the looks of familiarity he receives in Paris when he meets his double, French nobleman Jacques De Gue, who too laments his life being stuck to the traditions he needs to uphold. After the two lookalikes spend a drunken evening together, John awakens to find Jacques gone, but all indication of he being John Barratt gone with Jacques. Out of circumstance, John is forced to assume Jacques' identity at his country château outside of the village of Villadeau, that is until he can find a way to reclaim his own identity. In the process, he hopes to discover why Jacques has pulled this ruse. He finds that Jacques has a problematic relationship with those in his sphere, from his morphine addicted bedridden mother, the Countess, to his emotionally distant wife Francoise, his equally distant sister Blanche, his buffoonish brother-in-law Aristide, his neglected teenage daughter Marie-Noel, and his not so hidden mistress Bela in Villadeau. As John is able to reconcile those relationships to some degree, he learns Jacques' more nefarious reasons for doing what he did, which may threaten John's life and those around him.—Huggo
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