When a patron of the arts named Serge loans him a luxurious penthouse apartment in central Paris, Howard can't believe his luck. Now he can live cheaply while he translates articles for shortlived websites and doomed art journals nobody reads. And he'll have more time to devote to his inscrutable French girlfriend, Delphine, a trainee lawyer. Then, disaster strikes, in the shape of Eugene, Howard's half-brother and personal nemesis, who sows chaos...