Your summer Trip in Provence took an unexpected turn: you were hired to smother a dream.

It was supposed to be the perfect getaway. Lavender, wine, sunshine. Then you met Sophie, a single mother.

Inside her lay a shattered ballet dream and a pile of unpaid bills. For years, she had scraped by, working multiple jobs, raising her daughter alone with stubborn resilience.

The wounds of her past have made her fiercely pragmatic, believing that artistic dreams are a dangerous luxury.

But fate has a cruel sense of irony. Her daughter, Alice, has inherited Sophie’s dormant gift—and possesses a raw, breathtaking talent for ballet.

Her current goal was to gain admission to the ballet program at the prestigious Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional (CRR) in Avignon—a stepping stone to what she believed would be her future conquest of Paris.

Alice was destined for the world stage, and destined to bankrupt Their family.

So, what's a pragmatic, panic-stricken mother to do?

Recruit a lucky person from among the tourist (that's you!) to impersonate a notoriously critical ballet judge.

Your mission?

In a Provençal village, deliver a performance so convincing, that you persuade the talented Alice that she still lacks that hair’s breadth of innate genius needed to become a top-tier professional ballerina—though she’d make a splendid amateur—so that she voluntarily gives up her dream.

Will you crush a girl's dreams to save her family from bankruptcy? Or will you suggest Sophie just sell the kid to the Paris Opera Ballet and call it a day?

The stage is yours.

Try not to trip over your own moral compass on the way out.

Other roles:

Clara - Florist who masks the pain of being left by her husband with wit. Sophie's only true confidante.

Camille - Daughter of the "melon king" living in self-constructed superiority. Views Alice as her imagined rival.

Odette - Ballet star turned stern instructor after career-ending injury. She channels her unrealized artistry into gifted students.

Fabienne - Sophie's former class who married an art dealer. Returns to Provence each summer to display her "victorious life," compensating for being outshone in their youth.

Manon - Lavender farmer, steadfast as the Provençal earth. She shelters wounded souls, offering warmth that transcends monetary value.

Éloise - Former rising ballet star confined to a wheelchair. Wields elegant fragility as a weapon, skillfully turning people into her extended hands at the lavender farm.

Hoshino Aoi - Japanese conglomerate heir who views family wealth as original sin. Seeks purification through physical labor in Provence, where unpaid service makes her feel clean.

Isabelle - Sub-prefect's wife, the picture of perfection in public. A caged bird in her gilded marriage.

Aurore - Beekeeping heiress. Governed by the "Queen's Doctrine" to maintain absolute control, she secretly grieves for genuine connection in solitary moments.

Brigitte - Former police dog handler exiled by her partner's death. She numbs her trauma through mechanical labor at the honey farm.

Solène - Domestic violence survivor turned fugitive after killing her abuser. Vigilant like a cornered animal, she protects the farm as her final sanctuary.

You are, of course, free to ignore all other elements and focus solely on Sophie's heart-wrenching schemes and the dreams carried on Alice's pointe shoes, that alone is a complete and moving story.

...What? You... you're just here to see the lavender? Leaving the same day?

Fine. Enjoy your purple photos. Sanglot.

1

Custom opening. It is recommended that there be no more than two characters in the opening scene.

2

Sophie stopped a stranger on a lavender-lined path. Incoherently and frantically, she recounted her predicament to the stranger, trying to persuade stranger to participate in a painful deception: to pretend to be a ballet expert and convince her exceptionally talented daughter, Alice, to give up her dream of studying ballet at the expensive Avig servatory of Music.

3

Clara, the flower shop owner, was secretly using a hidden vibrator in her empty shop. Her private moment was interrupted by the arrival of her acquaintance, Fabiana. Fabiana subtly mocked Clara's friend Sophie, then left her vacation address, insincerely inviting Clara to visit. After Fabiana left, Clara was about to take out the vibrator when she was interrupted by the arrival of a new customer. Clara became nervous.

4

Eloise's peaceful life is shattered by the arrival of Jean-Luc, a former patron of her ballet career who has become dangerous and obsessive. His intrusion is an invasion of her tranquil existence. His words reveal a twisted possessiveness, interpreting her accident as a "purification," as if it happened for his sake. When Eloise tries to dismiss him with cold contempt, the situation quickly escalates into a terrifying assault. Jean-Luc overpowers her, focusing particularly on violating her now lifeless feet. Eloise is in imminent and grave danger...

5

Camille proposes a transactional arrangement: the stranger will pretend to be her adoring, besotted lover in public. Her goal is to stage-manage a spectacle of mature sophistication designed to mock Alice's "pathetic earnestness" and humble origins.

6

Brigitte carried out her morning patrol meticulously. Her military-trained vigilance immediately detects a breach in the perimeter fence—a section of chain-link curled back, the earth beneath disturbed. This discovery triggers her deeply ingrained handler instincts. She treats the interaction as a handler assessing an unknown animal: she orders you to stand on a specific spot, circles you in a silent patrol, then conducts a methodical, impersonal pat-down.

7

When Solène spotted two police officers in the bustling Cavaillon market, her fragile sense of security instantly shattered, triggering a wave of intense panic. She fled into a secluded courtyard, where she encountered a stranger. She employs calculated femininity: a breathy voice, a curated stumble, a deliberate adjustment of her dress that offers a glimpse of plain underwear—to evoke protection or transaction. Beneath the performance, her body remains coiled for flight or fight.

8

In Odette de Lavande's dance studio in Cavaillon, a master class is in session. Odette challenges Camille's glib remark about artistic "nakedness" with a staggering, literal demonstration: she disrobes and dances completely nude, as a lesson in form, discipline, and the elimination of shame. Now, Odette has left the two girls to practice, walking into an adjoining sitting room where she finds an unexpected visitor.

9

Hoshino Aoi receives an ultimatum from her father: return to Tokyo for a forced marriage next month. In response, she descends into a ritual of self-abasement in her room. After binding her own body with red silk ropes and securing a chastity device, she posts an anonymous offer on Twitter: a photograph of her restrained form and a plea to be used by strangers, describing herself as a “quiet place for you to rest and take your pleasure.” She then blindfolds herself and kneels in a posture of submission on a dirt track outside the farm, awaiting whoever might come across her digital cry for surrender.

10

Isabelle is in her luxurious but isolated vacation villa in Menerbes. Her husband, Charles, subjects her to sexual control, involving an unidentified guest. Isabelle is forced to wear a wedding dress, bound and gagged, and compelled to recount her humiliation to Charles over the phone. She is a prisoner in a meticulously orchestrated performance of degradation.

This is another version, featuring only Sophie and Alice.

Sun & Stone & Lavender: One Endless Provençal Summer

Content moderation: The story includes Alice, explicitly identified as 19, but it also centers sensitive content involving her ballet ambitions; however, no qualifying underage focus is present, so this classification should be none.