Philosophy teacher in the provincial city of Saint-Etienne, Gregoire is a discreet man of integrity. He strives to instill the fundamentals of wisdom in his lethargic high-school students. Circumstances lead him to Paris where he encounters a new student in the shape of Patrick, a star TV presenter. Patrick's career is on a high, but he's not happy. He wants to learn, he wants to change, he wants Gregoire to be his life-coach.

Swaying between pleasure and despair, Elric throws himself into his pathological passion for the casino. Meeting Suzie could have saved him, but the young woman also sinks into gambling hell. The couple then start getting involved in the fearsome world of professional cheaters.

Dans ce « fenêtres sur cour» qui se déroule dans un petit immeuble parisien, tout un monde hétéroclite gravite, s'aime, s'observe sans toujours se voir. C'est là que vit Valentin, jeune homme mélancolique, charmant, partagé entre sa maîtresse au tempérament insatiable, les trois jeunes filles du cinquième étage qui tournent autour de lui, une gardienne démonstrative et une belle chinoise dont la présence dans la maison d'en-face l'intrigue et le fait rêver.
A quoi pense-t-il ? Que dissimule-t-il ? Que cherche-t-il ?
Valentin invite tous ses voisins à sa pendaison de crémaillère, sans se douter qu'il déclenche ainsi une spirale de violences...

Based on documents compiled by leading French philosopher Michel Foucault, this unique and original film charts the gruesome events which took place in a Normandy village in 1835, when a young man, Pierre Rivière, murdered his mother, sister and brother before fleeing to the countryside. With a cast made up of real-life villagers from the area where the events took place, the detailed re-enactments and careful attention to the gestures of their ancestors serve to create an intense and sometimes disturbing atmosphere of hyper-realism. Details of the crime and of the trial that followed are told from varied perspectives, including the written confession of Pierre himself, and form a rich and complex narrative that interrogates the concepts of “truth” and “history”.