When family father Jean meets his son's teacher, his thoughts only revolve around her. Again and again their paths cross in the small rural town and the two of them come closer by small steps. What future does this silent desire have?
Jean, his loving wife and son live a simple, happy life. At his son's homeroom teacher Madamoiselle Chambon's request, he volunteers as substitute teacher and starts to fall for her delicate and elegant charm. His ordinary life between family and work starts to falter.—Pusan International Film Festival
In a small town in the south of France, Jean lives a simple but carefree and content life with his wife Anne-Marie and son Jérémy. Jean has a solid job as a bricklayer and feels good about his work. When his wife Anne-Marie, who also works, suffers lumbago, Jean has to pick up his son Jérémy from school and meets his teacher Mademoiselle Chambon. Enchanted by this chance encounter, he can't get the pretty woman out of his mind. As it happens in a small town, the two meet more often from then on. One day Jean has to replace the broken window in Véronique Chambon's flat. When he discovers a violin in her flat, he persuades her to play something for him. With her music, she opens the door to a world unknown to Jean. Fascinated by her playing, Jean feels an attraction that is completely new to him. She also feels an affection which she silently reveals. Without physical proximity, a familiarity develops between two people who are actually strangers to each other. For Jean, a balancing act begins between the decision for his small, hitherto happy family and his newly discovered feelings for Mademoiselle Chambon.
Véronique Chambon leads a quiet, unassuming life in provincial town, earning her living by teaching elementary school and seeming spending much of her free time in the quiet of her rented apartment. Having asked the parents of her pupils to visit her classroom to talk about what they do for a living, she encounters Jean, a class parent and home builder who somewhat shyly explains his daily routine. Somehow, a certain spark ignites between the proper young teacher and the gruff contractor. Both sense the impossibility of their attraction, but neither lets it fade. Stéphane Brizé carefully constructs the elegant, moving tale of unexpected romance with enormous patience and delicacy, sensitive to the rhythms of this special relationship full of misconstrued signals and ambiguous feelings.
