Women enter and exit a science fiction author's life, over the course of a few years, after the author loses the woman he considers his one true love.

The night of August 24, 1572, is known as the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. In France a religious war is raging. In order to impose peace a forced wedding is arranged between Margot de Valois, sister of the immature Catholic King Charles IX, and the Hugenot King Henri of Navarre. Catherine of Medici maintains her behind-the-scenes power by ordering assaults, poisonings, and instigations to incest.

The Comte de Gonzague schemes against his cousin, the Duc de Nevers, even though he is the Duke's heir and will inherit his estates. The Count has kept secret the existence of the Duke's bastard, recently born. When the Duke learns of his child, he journeys to wed the mother, a baron's daughter, in her father's isolated chateau. The occupants of the castle are surprised and murdered by the Count and his men. The only ones to escape are the Duke's friend, the skilled swordsman Lagardère, and the infant, a girl, now the rightful heiress to the Duke's vast fortune. The Count believes the pair to have drowned, when in fact they have been concealed by a travelling troupe of Italian players. Twenty years pass. The Count has discovered that the two survive and seeks to have them slain. But Lagardère gains the confidence of the Count, and employment as his bookkeeper, through his clever disguise as a hunch-back...

Algiers, 1940. MAMAN TITINE has lived alone with her five children ever since her husband JOSEPH, a Jewish post office employee, set off for Paris with forged papers to find work. Maman Titine tries to hide the fact she's worried # especially so that she can ease the childhood problems of her son MEYER, an intelligent, proud and nonconformist young boy who loves her in a jealous way. When financial trouble and loneliness threaten to finally get the better of her she travels to occupied Paris in an attempt to persuade Joseph to return. He has to remain, however: he cannot earn a living in war-torn Algiers. Meanwhile Meyer is growing up; he has his first sexual experiences, and tries as best he can to keep the family fed. When Joseph returns in 1945 Meyer, who fought on De Gaulle's side at the age of nearly 18, goes to France. He studies medicine there and becomes a famous surgeon. Written by Anonymous