Saint-Omer court of law. 30-year-old novelist Rama attends the trial of Laurence Coly, a young woman who stands accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter after abandoning her to the rising tide on a beach in northern France. Rama is planning to fashion a contemporary retelling of the myth of Medea from the case. But as the trial continues, nothing goes as she had expected, and the 4 months pregnant author will have to question the truth of her own experience of maternity.