House of Cards

American Reno Davis has just packed in the latest in what has been a long series of failed careers, that of a Paris-based boxer, he almost to the point of what he considers the last resort of returning to the US to work on his brother's chicken ranch, or the more arduous dream of becoming a writer. But an antagonistic encounter that he has with eight year old Paul de Villemont leads to Paul's wealthy mother, widowed Anne de Villemont, hiring him to be Paul's tutor, that role really to be a stereotypically American masculine influence in Paul's life. Reno will eventually learn that the de Villemonts are French colonials exiled from Algeria, and that Anne's husband, General Sebastien HenrI de Villemont, was killed in a targeted bomb attack on the streets of Algiers. He will also see that the goings-on in the de Villemont family are controlled primarily by: Anne's mother-in-law; Anne's psychiatrist, the General's best friend Dr. Morillon, who Anne accuses of trying to deem her crazy to minimize her influence on the family; and a family friend named Leschenhaut. Reno will eventually see that he really was hired to be a protector of both Anne and Paul against the larger goings-on of the rest of the family, especially at the geopolitical level which is keeping Anne and Paul hostage within the family. He will also eventually see that Anne, Paul and his lives are at risk if he doesn't comply with those goings-on, their fate otherwise which may be the same as his predecessor, who was found floating dead in the Seine, and with innocent Paul used as a pawn.