Paul Barral, mayor of a small mountain town at the foot of Mont-Blanc, is fighting to maintain business and protect the school from an announced closure. Not without determination, the Mayor may have found the solution.

In the heart of the city, in the heart of life, in a public garden, there was once a bench, all alone. A moment of respite, a pause. A save haven, a place of shelter, a refuge. A stage. A crossroads. Just a little bit of wood and steel.

Summer 79, holidays, Ocean. Jean, about 10 years old, realizes that his mother and father don't love each other anymore. Suddenly, the family is confronted with death. Jean discovers the ambivalence of life, its violence, human weakness, something like the end of childhood...

After the departure of their husbands for the 1914 war, two women have to run an oil mill.

In 1962, two teenage friends discover love in the form of a beautiful gypsy.