Life Is a Long Quiet River

On Christmas Eve, the obstetrician delivers two babies and the nurse, who had hoped for a tender evening with him, swaps the newborns. The Groseille girl is swapped with the Le Quesnoy boy, setting a hidden lineage that will echo for years. The town remains unaware of the switch as the families go on with their lives.

Twelve years after the swap, the doctor’s wife dies, and the nurse’s hopes of replacing her are dashed as she is rejected. She writes confessional notes to both families and a final note to the obstetrician. Panicked by the revelation, the obstetrician hastily leaves town.

The Le Quesnoys decide to keep Bernadette and adopt Maurice as their son, bringing him into their large home. In exchange, they offer the Groseilles a substantial cash sum and free electricity. The arrangement quietly reshapes two families’ futures.

Maurice settles into the Le Quesnoy household, excelling at school and behaving well at home. Meanwhile he quietly sells off family effects to accumulate a secret nest egg and begins gifting things to his former Groseille kin. The two lives he leads grow increasingly divergent.

One day, when Bernadette declares that she hates poor people, Maurice finally reveals her true origins to her. The revelation unsettles her sense of belonging and loyalty. The truth fracturing their close relationship becomes a turning point.

Horrified by what she sees at the Groseille home, Bernadette sneaks in to witness their poverty firsthand. The experience traumatizes her, and she withdraws to the Le Quesnoy mansion, locking herself in her room for weeks. The borders between families begin to blur.

Maurice keeps in touch with the Groseille family, supporting them with goods taken from the Le Quesnoy home. He also arranges for all the Groseille and Le Quesnoy children, except Bernadette, to meet by the river to drink beer and swim. The act binds the cousins in a shared, precarious moment.

During the river outing, the eldest Le Quesnoy boy and the eldest Groseille girl become entangled in a long grass encounter. The moment hints at the mixing of two worlds and the fragility of their arrangements. The adults remain mostly unaware of the consequences.

The children return home in disarray, and Madame Le Quesnoy experiences a nervous collapse, turning to alcohol to cope. The stress of keeping two families together takes its toll on her health. The household atmosphere thickens with unspoken tensions.

Strained by events, Bernadette runs away from home and is soon found by the police who bring her back. The episode underscores the depth of the divisions between the two families. It marks another conspicuous rupture in their fragile arrangement.

Monsieur Le Quesnoy takes Bernadette and the pregnant maid to a seaside cottage, with the rest of the family to follow at the end of the school term. The plan isolates Bernadette and the maid from the rest of the household. The move foreshadows a broader separation of lives.

In an adjoining seaside cottage, the nurse finally has the obstetrician to herself after he has suffered a stroke. The nurse's control over him deepens the earlier sense of exploitation and manipulation. The occupation of the cottage intensifies the dual lives the families lead.

The story closes with the nurse and obstetrician together, while the two families' futures remain entangled and unresolved. The garden of secrets continues to influence the characters, even as they attempt to move forward. The final scenes linger on the consequences of the swapped lives.