A delicate boy growing up in Paris, Jerome Palissier spends many summers at his uncle's house in the Normandy countryside, where the whole world seems "steeped in azure'. There he falls deeply in love with his cousin Alissa and the with him. But gradually Alissa becomes convinced that Jerome's love foe her is endangering his soul. In the interests of his salvation, she decider no suppress everything that is beautiful in herself in both mind and body.

A devastating exploration of aesthetician these extremes, Strait is the Gate is a novel of haunting beauty that stimulates the mind and the emotions.