Sentenced to six years in prison, Malik El Djebena is alone in the world and can neither read nor write. On his arrival at the prison, he seems younger and more brittle than the others detained there. At once he falls under the sway of a group of Corsicans who enforce their rule in the prison. As the 'missions' go by, he toughens himself and wins the confidence of the Corsican group.

Siamese twins, separated at birth, maintain a psychic knowledge of each other's dire fates.

In Corsica, four girlfriends share the last days of an endless summer. It's hot, too hot to do anything. While they share their secrets, Camille, the youngest of them, says she's pregnant.

Baron Conrad Crusenhielm is hit in the head during a drunken brawl. Suffering from amnesia, he is mistaken for the lost sailor Karlsson and taken to the navy vessel Fylgia.

In 1863, when a legless, shipwrecked man washes up on the Acadian coast, he's taken to the home of Jean the Corsican, a burly and bitter former soldier, and his childless young wife, Julitte. The man, who is young, handsome, and well-dressed, remains mute as Julitte nurses him back to health. Jean, meanwhile, who is inexplicably estranged from Julitte and an outsider to townspeople, continues his hunt for pirate treasure, rumored to be hidden in a cave by the sea. The treasure is his ticket out of Acadia. As loneliness and Eros draw Julitte and the mysterious Jérôme together, something's got to give.