Twenty years have passed. Thérèse lives alone in Paris. We exiled her there. She seems to be asking nothing more for life. She is sick and lives in slow motion. One day, we ring rue du Bac. It is Mary, her daughter, whom she sees so little. She is twenty years old now and comes to see her to escape her middle-class south-west. She is very in love with a boy, she expects from her mother a support, a freedom of point of view. His name is Murad. The arrival of her daughter awakens Therese with her reserve and torpor. It does not shock Mary, who is very busy with her love. Thérèse proposes to meet Mourad. She quickly understands that he is not willing to marry Mary but wants her without wanting to bond more deeply to her. It is she Therese, that the young man looks ... She wanted to help her daughter to be happy, a wish too official not to be suspicious. Here she is delivered to the power of her own seduction ...

Thérèse Desqueyroux a tenté d'assassiner son mari autrefois pour échapper aux conventions bourgeoises, à la norme et à l'ennui d'une existence insupportable. Un non-lieu a finalement été prononcé, afin de préserver le nom et l'honneur de la famille. Vingt ans se sont écoulés. Aujourd'hui, Thérèse vit seule à Paris. Un jour, Marie, sa fille, vient lui rendre visite. La rencontre est brutale pour Thérèse, qui a très peu connu cette enfant, qu'on a tenue éloignée d'elle. Or, Marie vient réclamer l'aide de sa mère car, amoureuse de Mourad, elle hésite à s'engager et voudrait avoir l'avis de Thérèse. Lorsque cette dernière fait connaissance du jeune homme, l'attraction qu'elle exerce sur lui est telle que les relations entre elle et sa fille se compliquent aussitôt...