The family that centres the story is typically middle-class, but just happens to be well-adjusted and happy. Frederic is deeply in love with his wife, Frederique, and they have a jolly, rambunctious child. There are no clouds on their horizon. Long hours are spent soaking up the sun, swimming in nearby rivers and enjoying wine and food on terraces. One day Hugo, a new neighbor, appears. He is invited for dinner; one thing leads to another and conversation soon reveals that Hugo is gay. So begins a finely inscribed depiction of a growing friendship between two men: one is happily married, monogamous and deeply settled in his ways; the other is a restless free thinker who does not believe in love and moves freely between multiple relationships.