Opening with the trial of a farmer accused of having dismembered a woman jogger, this noir novel explores the genealogy of violence in the family of the perpetrator, whose inexplicably barbaric act seems to be an emanation of the distant past rearing its ugly head once again.

A psychoanalyst, expert witness in court, receives a fascinating case: Charles Blancard, a farmer, stands accused of having killed and dismembered a woman jogger. The unsavory farmer has given six different versions of the crime and says that he can’t remember the circumstances. The expert, who is supposed to evaluate his mental state, but who’s having enough trouble dealing with her own depression – can’t help seeing him as a manipulator. Still, Charles did make one confession that she finds intriguing: “I am the last one.” Meaning he is the youngest son, but also the last generation on the family farm, the last of a line of violent men, and the last man. So she decides to explore the genealogy of violence in the family of the murderer, whose barbaric act seems to have reared up from the mists of time.