While on vacation, a woman's husband is taken by the Russian government. After one attempt fails, she begins looking for a suitable spy to capture and trade in exchange for her husband, but she develops an attraction to the one she thinks is a good candidate.

Major James Prentis VC is a British spy of World War II and war hero who goes under the code name of "Shuttlecock". Alienated from his family and children, he ends up in a mental institution in Lisbon, Portugal.

Far from intensive farming and industrial output, a revolution is already under way; good red meat has become a rare, indeed, luxury product. But where is the world's best steak found? Franck Ribière and his favorite butcher, Yves-Marie Le Bourdonnec, generous, charming, and ecological, set out to meet the new players in the field to try to understand what makes a cut of meat good.

A British family is trapped between culture, tradition, and the colonial sins of the past.