Léa, the daughter of a wealthy Bordeaux family, is spending happy days at the Montillac family estate at the end of the 1930s. Radiant with youth, she charms all the men who meet her on the blue bicycle offered to her by her father. She is in deep love with Laurent, when she tells him, he lets her down. He is in love with Camille, Lea's best friend. The war sounds the death knell of her carelessness. She takes refuge in Paris. There, she finds Laurent, his secret love, who has just married Camille. During a party given him, she meets mysterious François -a friend of Laurent who works for the government. He goes right on and starts to win Lea's heart, but she is not interested. Laurent has to go to the front-line. He asks Lea to stay with Camille in Paris, to look after her and the unborn baby. But the German troops are progressing, and Léa and Camille are forced to leave the capital.

Jean-Francois and Angie have known each other for 25 years and have been lovers on and off for most of that time. After two marriages (one ending in divorce, the other with her husband's death) and two children, the free-spirited Angie has returned to Jean-Francois, only to announce after a year of living together that she's leaving him to open a antique business in the United States. Jean-Francois regrets Angie's decision, but also knows her well enough to know there's little he can do to change her mind. Five years later, Jean-Francois has become friends with Angie's daughter Winnie, who now lives in Paris and has fallen in love with Laurent, a carefree artist who lives in a studio given to him by his father. However, after sleeping with Laurent, Winnie is convinced he can't be trusted and keeps him at a distance. Over the next few years, Laurent keeps running into Winnie, and Angie periodically arrives at Jean-Francois' doorstep only to leave again shortly after.