Jeanne Vaubernier, a young working-class woman hungry for culture and pleasure, uses her intelligence and allure to climb the rungs of the social ladder one by one until she meets and begins a scandalous relationship with King Louis XV.
After a Jewish couple sells their basement to a former history teacher, they discover his secret life as an anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist. As the couple struggles to rescind the sale, the buyer befriends their naive teenage daughter.
Upon returning from a hunting expedition, King Louis XIV feels a sharp pain in his leg. He begins to die, surrounded by loyal followers in the royal chambers.
Paul is preparing to leave Tajikistan, while thinking back on his adolescent years. His childhood, his mother's madness, the parties, the trip to the USSR where he lost his virginity, the friend who betrayed him and the love of his life.