Soon thereafter, Karl's grandmother offers him her house in the hills west of Avignon for the summer. In order to escape Paris, he accepts. On his journey south he meets old friends and explores a series of caves full of primitive drawings. For a while, he is happy, but things take a nasty turn when Heike arrives at the house with her new boyfriend and two Americans in tow. If that is not enough, an American friend, Dutch Vogel, returns from the first Gulf War, worn out and angry.

Karl discovers that he has somehow attracted these troubled people and their calamities and that if he doesn't discover the reason why, he will never be rid of them.