Second Footman

Max is nineteen and works as the second footman in the household of the duchesse de Claireville. Service is not where he means to spend his life, and he has no intention of putting up with its humiliations for long. Instead, he has devised a scheme: he will find a member of the aristocracy and draw them, without their knowledge, into a bold deception that serves his own ends.

The novel takes up a familiar piece of advice, that one should stay true to oneself, and asks what that self really is and whether it can be known at all. What counts as truth, and which version of a person deserves loyalty? These questions sit beneath Max's ambitions throughout.