One day in New York, Bailly saw Jean Renoir's classic film The Rules of the Game. Which gave rise to question at the heart of a book structured like a subtle mystery: "What about France resonates with me? What makes me feel I belong to it as a country?" In search of answers, the author undertakes a variety of small trips around France to places he felt compelled to visit: locations at times historical, at times poetic, close and distant, urban and rural, central and peripheral.