Nicolas Serreau

The climbing of an immense staircase made up of the most varied stairs- Symbolic scenes occur on different levels where characters seem to be prisoners of their deeds and of their own folly. The steep staircase leads little by little towards the zones of great light where human beings and nonhuman beings meet.

A company president gets framed with a food-poisoning scandal and the only person who can help him is the evening cleaning-woman, who always seems to be at the right place at the right time.

A threesome becomes a foursome in this sensitive drama. The tale begins with the relationship between a recently divorced man and woman (from different marriages) and the bisexual they get involved with. At first all three are happy in their new arrangement, but then the divorced fellow suddenly leaves and those remaining in the relationship become quite tense. Fortunately the fellow returns with another, more conventional fellow. Eventually the three persuade him to join them.

Camille, a mercurial César-winning actress, has seen better times. Estranged from her husband, she's with her children only every other weekend. It's her weekend, but her agent has booked her to MC a Rotary club dinner in Vichy. She takes them with her, and when her husband learns this, he demands to pick them up at once. She bolts in a rented car to the seaside, trying to improve her relations with the children, especially the precocious and distant Vincent. He loves astronomy. A rare meteor shower is due in a few days, so she suggests they go to a plateau in Spain hoping to see it. He agrees, but the relationship remains difficult, and her husband is on their trail.