What is the importance of the Principaux's home in the novel, Vengeance Is Mine?

The Principaux house, located in the Caudéran neighborhood of Bordeaux, is a setting of repeated violence. When Maître is a child, she visits the house with her mother one day when her mother takes a job with Madame Principaux. While her mother irons, Maître accepts Gilles's invitation into his bedroom, where he ultimately abuses her.

In the narrative present, the Principaux house is the site of the Principaux children's murders. Desperate to exact her own liberation, Marlyne Principaux drowns her three children in the bathtub while her husband is out. When the police arrive, they find Jason, John, and Julia's bodies neatly aligned on their parents' bed. At the end of the novel, when Marlyne goes to trial, the court deems the house to blame for the crimes that took place therein.