Martin Cigalone and his wife Francesa live a carefree life, without realising that they are surrounded by a hostile and cold universe that is closing in around them. They are not in line with the times, in an era whre bistrots are replaced by banks, bookshops by clothes shops... a tim where bankers want to teach children stock-market speculation instead of Latin. Martin teaches cinema at a high school, Francesca is a translator. They are dreamers. Their flat in itself is a dream. It is huge and costs practically nothing because the rent agreement comes under a special French law of 1948. It is an overpopulated flat because they have turned it into an asylum for all those who need a home to survive. This happiness is threatened. Even if the ultramaterialistic system which surrounds them has forgotten them for the moment, the unavoidable happens : the owners want their flat back...