After several years spent abroad, Nicolas and Marie return to France to attend the wedding of an old friend. Although the couple are in crisis – they are on the verge of divorce – they still go the ceremony together. Upon arrival, they immediately announce their separation, to the embarassment of their social circle, which pales in comparison to that felt by Marie and Nicolas when they are together. With their social lives so closely bound up with their life as a couple, this proximity relates back to the limitations of their relationship, but also to the desire they still feel for one another. Paradoxically, their decision to separate and the physical distance they have established between themselves enables each of them to see themselves more clearly, and to see one another afresh.