Publisher Georges Lauzière invites a group of readers to a gathering held behind the back of an author whose identity is kept secret — though everyone knows it to be Émile Forest. He intends to reveal the contents of ten chapters that Forest withdrew from his most recent work, chapters the author does not wish to see published. This betrayal unfolds as a monologue, extended into a song cycle for countertenor and piano; the chapters are thus unveiled through song rather than prose.