A naked man, his body covered with bruises, is running in the woods. He stops suddenly: who is this mysterious woman calling for help? And who are these men who are trying to shoot him?

Although living a comfortable life in Salon-de-Provence, a charming town in the South of France, Julie has been feeling depressed for a while. To please her, Philippe Abrams, a post office administrator, her husband, tries to obtain a transfer to a seaside town, on the French Riviera, at any cost. The trouble is that he is caught red-handed while trying to scam an inspector. Philippe is immediately banished to the distant unheard of town of Bergues, in the Far North of France...

Agatha is a beautiful young woman from Romania who had a brief but passionate love affair with a French surgeon when he visited her country as part of a charitable medical team. Agatha has decided to come to France to rekindle their romance, but when she arrives in the city of Roubaix, she discovers he didn't take their relationship nearly as seriously as she did. With nowhere to go, Agatha is befriended by Mehdi, a cab driver who helps her find a place to stay. Mehdi is attracted to Agatha, and she returns his interest, but as it turns out Mehdi is already seeing someone -- Cecile, who is having an affair with Mehdi while involved with his close friend Marc. Hoping to move away from Roubaix with Agatha and start a new life, Mehdi gets a job as a bill collector, while Marc impulsively walks off his job and an angry Cecile gives him his walking papers.