As they await their university acceptance letters, a spirited group of teens travels south by train with their Latin teacher, Madame Mercier. Among the ruins of Pompeii – where the eruption of Vesuvius froze a civilisation in time – they begin to confront the murky realities of who they are now, and who they are becoming. Gradually consumed by the demands of her role, Mercier struggles to keep her students in line. As tensions simmer within the group, rivalries, pent-up emotions and betrayals build with mounting intensity. One by one, they are swept up in the region’s overwhelming beauty and their own awakening desires, until they surrender to them completely.
