In Hanoi, a French couple who had come to adopt a baby met Maï, an old woman who had a love affair with a French officer in 1945. She tells how, sent by de Gaulle to restore order, Leclerc negotiates with Ho Chi Minh, against the advice of d'Argenlieu, the high commissioner.

Mia is thirty and getting divorced. She moves into a studio apartment in a low-income housing project. As a former swimming champion, she now finds herself giving swimming lessons to the other inhabitants... Without a pool...