After a serious sport accident in a swimming pool, Ben, now an incomplete quadriplegic, arrives in a rehabilitation center. He meets with other handicapped persons (tetraplegics, paraplegics, traumatized crania), all victims of accidents, as well as a handicapped since his early childhood. They go through impotence, despair and resignation, with their daily struggle to learn how to move a finger or to hold a fork. Some of them slowly find a little mobility while others receive the verdict of the handicap for life. Despite everything, hope and friendship help them endure their difficulties.

Jean-Étienne Fougerole is an intellectual bohemian who released his new novel "In Open Arms" and calling the wealthiest people to welcome home the families in need. While he promotes his book during a televised debate, his opponent criticized him for not applying what he himself advocates. While stuck, Jean-Étienne Fougerole accepts the challenge, for fear of being discredited. The same evening, a family of Roma rings the door of his Marnes-la-Coquette villa and the writer feels obliged to house them.