ON THE SATURDAY MORNING OF JANUARY 9, 1993, WHILE JEAN-CLAUDE ROMAND WAS KILLING HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN, I WAS WITH MINE IN A PARENT-TEACHER MEETING ... Jean-Claude and Luc have been friends for twenty years: the former a leading figure in the world of research, hobnobbing with government ministers and attending international conferences; the latter a general practitioner. But when Luc is summoned to the police station in the aftermath of the tragedy, he discovers that everything he thought he knew about Jean-Claude was a sham - and he is left with the puzzling task of discovering how a man could successfully live a lie for almost two decades ...