Pierre-Joseph goes to an apprenticeship college to train as a gardener. There he meets a series of characters ? Franc?oise Brown, the principal, Alberto, his botany teacher, and Adrien, his employer ? who will prove decisive in his apprenticeship story and in unleashing his sexuality. Forty years later Kutta appears, Franc?oise Brown?s adoptive child whom he has heard so much about but never met. But Kutta, who is now the owner of a strange cha?teau, seems to be looking for more than just a gardener.