Silk

When an epidemic threatens to destroy the silk trade in France, the young merchant Herve Joncour leaves his doting wife and his comfortable home in the small town of Lavilledieu and travels across Siberia to Japan to obtain eggs for a new breeding of silk worms. It is the 1860s; Japan is closed to foreigners, and this must be a clandestine operation. During his negotiations with the local baron, Joncour's attention is arrested by the man's concubine, a girl who does not have Oriental eyes. Although the young Frenchman and the girl cannot exchange more than a word, love blossoms between them, conveyed through a series of subtle messages over four visits to Japan. How their secret affair develops is told in a narration as beautiful, seamless, and delicate as a piece of fine silk.