Montreal-born thriller writer Piers Le Gris is living a comfortable life of exile in Avignon, France, doted on by a beautiful older French woman, Nelly Reboul, his landlady. When seventeen-year-old Magali moves into the ancient mansion, her vitality, curiosity and tempestuous involvement with a young Arab poet draws all three into perilous intrigue. Magali's presence jars open the door to a long-forgotten love affair in Nelly's past, and forces Piers to do to battle with yearnings he has carefully smothered under a monkish routine. Drawn outside the claustrophobic confines of rue des Griffons, he finds himself dangerously entangled in the crosscurrents of desire, swept up by the lives of three compelling women. Marianne Ackerman explores the potent clash of spirit and flesh in Piers' Desire, a tale of love and redemption.