Scapegoat

In Daphne du Maurier's chilling psychological thriller, John, a mild-mannered English academic, embarks on a fateful trip to France that irrevocably alters his life. By chance, he encounters a Frenchman, Jean de Gué, in a provincial railway station, a man who bears an uncanny and disturbing resemblance to himself. What begins as an evening of shared camaraderie and drink soon devolves into a nightmare when John awakens to discover that Jean has stolen his identity, leaving John trapped in a life that is not his own. Forced into the shoes of his enigmatic doppelganger, John must navigate the complexities of Jean's aristocratic existence: a crumbling chateau, a failing glass factory, a deeply fractured family with hidden resentments, and the weight of a mistress and a wife. As John struggles to maintain the façade, he peels back the layers of Jean's troubled life, confronting secrets and responsibilities that are both perplexing and perilous, all while desperately seeking a way to reclaim his true self.