Charlotte narrates the story of how she moved to a town near the Canadian border and began teaching French to Yvan, the son of French-Canadian immigrants. They met after a chance encounter at a party. A former boxer, Yvan now studies for the priesthood at the local seminary. It isn't long before Charlotte becomes part of the daily life of Yvan and his fellow seminarians. One of these seminarians, Maxime, blackmails Charlotte into seducing Yvan. Charlotte reluctantly agrees as she doesn't want the photos that Maxime has taken of her to be leaked, compromising her ability to recruit clients for her French lessons. In the process of seducing Yvan, Charlotte and Yvan grow closer, eventually inspiring Yvan to leave the seminary to marry Charlotte. In the buildup to the wedding, Yvan's family learns that Charlotte previously wrote a book about a young woman who falls in love with a priest and then kills him. Yvan knows too, but he thinks it's just a story.