An elderly lady is visited each month by her good-for-nothing nephew who relieves her of her regular pension. When he appears again one winter day accompanied by two hideous but eager pals who start roasting a freshly captured piglet on her back lawn before maltreating her cat and retreating to sleep in the sauna, she can no longer stand it. So at dawn she packs up to flee into town, where she moves in with an old friend who gives her consolation and advice.

They loved each other with the ardor of thirteen-year-old boys. Rebellion and curiosity, hopes and doubts, girls and dreams of glory – they shared it all. Paul was rich, Emile poor. They went skinny-dipping, drank absinthe, starved, only to overeat. Sketched models by day, caressed them by night... Now, Paul is a painter and Emile a writer. Glory has passed Paul by. But Emile has it all: fame, money, the perfect wife, whom Paul once loved. They judge each other, admire each other, confront each other. They lose touch, meet up again, like a couple who cannot stop loving each other.