this deals with the history of several family lines with strong metapsychic potential, especially the remillards. this line begins with twins rogatien (rogi) and donatien (don), whose mother died giving birth to them. they discover that they have unusual mental abilities (which admittedly turn out to be far less than those of later generations of metapsychics). rogi is a milder mannered man, who becomes sterile through mumps. don is distrustful and malicious, but handsome and charming, and steals rogi's girlfriend marie madeleine "sunny" fabré.