A most gentle and amiable being

In an isolated village, soon after WW2, Emelie is being abused by her husband Marcel to such an extreme that she is on the verge of death. Despite the pleadings of her doctor, Maddy, the men who control all aspects of the community refuse to intercede.

Marcel's violence and the town's responses to it will soon bring division and fear, retribution and death, disputes about morality, and one woman's violent war against patriarchal power.

a most gentle and amiable being is a story about two generations of two families, both women and men, advancing and confronting the conditions and contagion of violence.