Justine, Armel, Camille and Félix are four thirty-somethings who live in Brussels. Friends for years, they are beautiful, they have a situation, they are alive. But at thirty years old, even the smallest grain of sand can stop the machine. The same day Faustine is challenged in her work, Camille becomes pregnant, Armel loses his father and Félix is called to work in Tokyo. It's raining sand in Brussels.

Bruno loved his job as a middle manager at a paper company, but optimistically views being laid off as an opportunity. After two years of searching for a comparable position, optimism turns to desperation. His wife works two jobs, and their marriage slowly deteriorates as their hold on the middle class slips away. Bruno concocts a grimly audacious plan to identify and kill his fellow job applicants so that he is the only qualified person left.

The pendulum swings from left to right punctuating the well-oiled mechanics of the routine life of Mrs. Foucault and her submissive husband. But one day, someone is going to barge in on them and break this daily rhythm.