At a Spanish cloister, a celebrated French general of the Napoleonic Wars recognizes the voice of one of the nuns and recalls how, five years ago, she was the Duchess of Langeais, and he her most persistent suitor.

A young journalist (Lespert) helps the French President compile his memoirs.

Ten young people (boys and girls) at the age at which all is possible. They meet, they love, they choose. The film comes and goes between all those people, revealing their anguish, their dreams, depicting the portrait of a generation of the '90s which has both the fury and the fear of life.

"What they imagine" - Bernard chokes to death on a boiled egg while his wife looks on. Juliette watches him suffocate without intervening and, as though waking from a long sleep, she abruptly leaves their house, marching straight ahead. Arriving in Havre by chance, she tries to board a freighter, but must wait 48 hours. In the port, she encounters Santiago, a young man who sells chips from his father's mobile stall.