The annual general assembly of the co-owners : quarrels about nothing, the collapse of the management agency, that turns becomes absurd.

A butcher whose meat is most tender, surrounded successively by ephemeral and delightful cashiers.

In this whimsical fable, Resnais deftly interweaves three story lines: the creation of an early-20th-century utopia; romantic high jinks at a school conference; and a fantasy sparked by F/X pioneer Georges Méliès.