For twenty-four hours, Geneva becomes the living backdrop for a contemporary drama: by day, a place where life is good; by night, a refuge for the marginalized. Five characters will meet there, connected by the night shift of a pair of cops. Hans, a police officer nearing the end of his career and worn down by life, tries his hand at compassion, while Dan, his young partner, struggles between prejudice and discovering the other.

In Valais, during the 1950s, cowherds are confronted with an epidemic raging in the Sasseneire mountain pasture. Joseph, who wants to marry Victorine, wants to take his animals there despite the place's bad reputation. Barthélemy claims that an evil curse is responsible for the death of the cows. The mountain pastures are soon quarantined. Clou, who is innocent, is cruelly locked up.

A group of 17 theater actors wonder about what happened to their teacher when he doesn't show up for a class.