Summary
Highlights
An unsettling smell of dying meat permeates the air, even though it's summer. Leaves fall from trees as if it were autumn, emanating from the pavilion where Monsieur Edmond, head of the family and office, resides. It's laundry day, and the family's odor is central to the scene.
Monsieur Edmond paces around the family wash tub, repeating his favorite saying: 'One must wash one's dirty linen in public.' The entire family, horrified and ashamed, scrubs frantically. The family cat, distressed by the scene, tries to escape but the door is locked; it then regurgitates a piece of heart it had eaten the day before.
Various personal items float in the wash tub: old wallets, scapulars, nightcaps, police hats, insurance policies, account books, love letters, anonymous letters, a Legion of Honor rosette, cotton swabs, ribbons, a cassock, a wedding dress, a fig leaf, a nurse's blouse, an officer's corset, diapers, plaster shorts, and leather shorts, symbolically representing hidden secrets.
Suddenly, long sobs are heard, and the cat covers its ears, recognizing the cries of the young girl from the house. She is naked, screaming, and crying. Her father strikes her with a scrub brush to 'bring her to her senses,' as she has a 'stain.' The family plunges her back into the water, even as she bleeds and cries, refusing to name the father of her child.
The father shouts that 'none of this should leave here,' a sentiment echoed by the mother, sons, cousins, mosquitoes, and even the parrot. They insist on the honor of the family, the father, the son, and the parrot, demanding that this secret remain within the household.
The young girl is pregnant, and the family fears the newborn will not know its father's name, invoking 'in the name of the father, the son, and the already-named parrot.' They reiterate that 'none of this should leave here.'
With a supernatural expression, the old grandmother sits on the edge of the wash tub, weaving a crown of artificial immortelles for the 'natural child.' The girl is trampled upon, as the barefoot family, in a 'harvest of the family,' a 'harvest of honor,' crushes her further. She disappears into the depths of the tub.
On the surface, soap bubbles burst, revealing 'pale white globules, the color of children of Mary.' A louse escapes with its young from a piece of soap. At 1:30, the head of the family puts on his hat and leaves, crossing the town square, saluting his assistant. His feet are red, but his shoes are well-polished, embodying the saying: 'It is better to be envied than pitied.'