The novel is composed of 15 unlabeled sections separated by white space. Some are taken from previous works featuring paintings or photographs, and others are new. Page numbers refer to the 1978 French paper edition. The 2013 digital PDF (and perhaps newer paper version?) has different pagination. See the main bibliography for more information on each source. For detailed information see Intertextual Assemblage in Robbe-Grillet from Topology to the Golden Triangle by Bruce Morrissette.
Sections 1-3 (pp. 7-38, "Impression, déjà" to "juste avant qu'il ne perde connaissance"): Previously unpublished.
Section 4 (pp. 38-65, "Tout au début" to "la pierre qui tombe, etc."): Chapter 2 of La Belle captive.
Section 5 (pp. 65-80, "Aussitôt après" to "de poisson"): Chapter 3 of La Belle captive.
Section 6 (pp. 80-89, "Et puis" to "du plaisir"): Chapter 4 of La Belle captive.
Section 7a (pp. 89-97, "Voici donc" to "accès au sanctuaire"(?)): Previously unpublished. No white space break to next text.
Section 7b (pp. 97-115, "Dès que je suis"(?) to "tête chauve du narrateur"): Text of Temple aux miroirs.
Sections 8-9a (pp. 115-130, "C'est san doute" to "ce qui vient après"(?)): Previously unpublished. No white space break to next text.
Section 9b (pp. 130-150, "Sans que le moindre bruit"(?) to "d'une cathédrale"): Text of "La Cible".
Sections 10-15 (pp, 151-237, "Tout en haut" to "Qu'ai-je fait?"): Previously unpublished.
After the disastrous war against Uruguay, the city, threatened by gangs of wild adolescents installed in the ruins of luxury hotels and in fortifications, from which they pillage the districts still intact, had to be systematically cleansed by the army. The chief of police asked that the most beautiful girls be spared, who thus find themselves locked up in the house of pleasure in which Doctor Morgan pursues his criminal experiments on female fantasies.
The narrator, a policeman trapped by his fraudulent manipulations, has undertaken in parallel the description of his prison, from the white cell to the interrogation room. He wonders if he himself is not being subjected to conditioning tests and structural modifications. Multiple murders and tortures denounce in any case the sado-erotic relations he maintains with the body of his own story.