Publisher Georges Lauzière invites a group of readers to a gathering held without the knowledge 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 and does not wish to see published. This betrayal takes the form of a monologue extended by a song cycle for countertenor and piano; the chapters are thus unveiled through song rather than prose.