While on a trip to Paris, a forty-year-old woman named Carmen reflects on her relationship with her forty-four-year-old boyfriend Rob, and thinks about how he isn’t perfect and how she knows that the relationship is based on sex. Before Rob leaves to attend to business, as they have traveled to Paris for his work, he asks Carmen if she will spend time with his seventeen-year-old daughter, Heather, while he is gone, and says that she really isn’t a bad kid. Carmen and Heather agree to meet at the Luxembourg Garden, and when Carmen arrives and sees Heather waiting, she taps her map on Heather’s knee, which makes Heather jump and shriek, as she thinks Carmen is someone else. After Heather tells Carmen to never do that again, she says that she wants to visit a hammam, a steam bath, and Carmen reluctantly agrees.  At the hammam, Carmen becomes nervous that all the other women are naked in the baths, but when Heather says they can leave, Carmen refuses and says they should try it out. When everyone looks at Carmen in the baths, she realizes that she is living her worst nightmare, but when Heather joins her in the bath, she is overcome with a maternal impulse to dance with Heather the way she dances with her own son—although she doesn’t mention the urge. Nonetheless, Carmen and Heather enjoy the bath together, and Carmen thinks to herself that it feels as though the outside world has gone away. Later that night, they join Rob at a restaurant for dinner. Carmen orders quail, which is served in a traditional way that disgusts Heather, who claims she’s going to be sick. Rob suggests Carmen send the dish back, and Carmen thinks to herself that she isn’t even sure if she loves Rob after all. Carmen eventually orders a different meal, and at the end of their dinner, Rob begins to make plans for the night as Heather leaves to go to the bathroom. Carmen watches her disappear into a staircase.