Claire, a businesswoman promoting a new skyscraper office in La Défense faces increasing scrutiny and isolation. The cold, grey offices amplify her loneliness, driving vivid dreams of setting the tower ablaze.
One night, an actor prepares to go on stage while a museum guard makes her rounds. The two gradually immerse themselves in these dormant institutions, on the fringes of shows and exhibitions.
A novelist attends the trial of a woman accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter by abandoning her to the rising tide on a beach in northern France. But as the trial continues, her own family history, doubts, and fears about motherhood are steadily dislodged as the life story of the accused is gradually revealed.