Sor Avraham is a university professor and married man of unswerving principles-until he meets the mysterious Marguerite Spares. Marguerite is also a professor-and also married; her strange outlook on life confuses and yet attracts Sor. He, always calm and rational, can't make sense of the way Marguerite makes him feel, and soon, it is a battle between his reason and his heart.

Heart wins out, and Marguerite and Sor are consumed by a torrid love affair that threatens both their marriages and their careers. Under Marguerite's influence, Sor begins to lose his grasp on reality. He is a man of staunch principles no longer, and he even falls apart in front of his students, several of whom suspect Sor might be losing his mind. How far is Sor willing to go to linger in the arms of his beloved?

As Sor's marriage begins to crumble, he learns secrets about Marguerite that threaten their relationship as well. Does she really believe with such passion in the philosophies that first drew them together? Sor's love for Marguerite becomes a dangerous obsession, emerging in the need to smell her jasmine perfume. Covering his home with jasmine plants is not enough-he needs more, and so begins the ruination of a once well-ordered life.