Two men - one English, one French - meet by chance in a railway station. Their resemblance is uncanny, and they spend the night talking and drinking together. But when John wakes the next morning that he realises his French companion has stolen his identity and disappeared. Forced to step into his doppelganger's shoes, John finds himself entangled in a web of secrets: as owner of a chateau, director of a failing business, head of a fractious family, and master of nothing.