Camille arrives in Ouessant, the island of her birth off the Brittany coast, to sell the family home. She spends a last night in the house during which she discovers a secret. In 1963 a man came to work with her father, who was the Jument lighthouse operator. He only stayed two months, but his presence proved to be a disturbing catalyst.

Fred Bonnemaison, a driven and self-centered Parisian food writer has to return to his home town, Lyon, when his mother, a lively octogenarian, runs away to join a community of free-thinking widows.

How, thanks to what's known as the "Butterfly theory" (a random series of unlinked events), can a young woman and a young man meet?

A group of Parisians frets over the minutiae of life in the course of one week.

Claire and Stéphane are two Lyon-based judges who could hardly be more different. She is young and enthusiastic, committed to helping those unfortunates who find themselves in debt. He is older, wiser, but disillusioned with his work and his life. Under Claire’s influence, Stéphane discovers a new lease of life and at last finds a cause that is worth fighting for...

A 19-year-old searches for her twin brother after he runs away from home, following a fight with their father.

A former police officer, Marc Lorca, sees his wife die from a terrible car accident, which occurred while he was driving. Previously alcoholic, Lorca seems to collapse under the weight of guilt. But a former colleague, Marianne Duriez, recently become a police captain, shows him that the accident is not accounted by any negligence on his part. The survey of experts has indeed revealed that the steering axis of the vehicle was sabotaged. Gradually, the suspect list is expanding. Lorca realizes he knows nothing of the past of his deceased wife, who was obviously part of a small extreme left group.

In 1972 16-year-old Marie-Claire became pregnant after a rape. With help from her mother Michelle and three other women, she underwent a clandestine abortion. Under a 1920 law, the five women were arrested and charged. Supported by a procession of well-known French (eg Simone de Beauvoir), the five were released and the law was adapted.

A teacher, driven to exasperation from insults and insubordination, takes her class hostage.