In the middle of the night, someone brings Ivan's body home to his wife and his sad-faced, jug-eared son. Through flashbacks, the film discloses the relationships among Ivan (Didier Bezace) and his brother Alex (Daniel Auteuil), a cop with a cleanliness fetish; siblings Juliette (Laurence Côte) and Jimmy (Benoît Magimel), Ivan's partners in a seedy nightclub; the love triangle of Alex, Juliette, and Marie (Catherine Deneuve), a professor of philosophy; and of Alex and his nephew, Ivan's dour, stoic son. Ivan's death changes every relationship. Images of paragliders, sun bathers, and opera suggest an expansive, colorful world outside the constricted lives of these characters.