The Arbac de Neuvilles are one of the oldest families in France. They have inhabited their ancient château for fifty-two generations and are proud of their noble ancestry. But today they are stone broke. When a bailiff turns up notifying them that they owe two million euros in back taxes, these proud aristocrats are understandably shaken to the core of their ancestral seat. Just how are they to find this amount of money when none of them has any capacity for work?

Michel, was born in Latin America, "on the other side of the world", as the script emphasizes, of a French father he hardly knew at all. He goes to Paris to start a new life. His only possession is a painting which his father left him, along with the advice: "If you ever need to sell the painting, do so in France, where it's worth a fortune." But Michel discovers that his father's tumultuous and secret past comes along with the valuable painting. Meanwhile, Clara, a middle age Spanish-Argentine mother gets a strange present from a now dying childhood friend in Buenos Aires. It's a roll of Super 8 film which brings back very strong, and emotionally charged memories from the 1970s and before.

In this whimsical fable, Resnais deftly interweaves three story lines: the creation of an early-20th-century utopia; romantic high jinks at a school conference; and a fantasy sparked by F/X pioneer Georges Méliès.

In a train compartment, 6 people who do not know each other tell the story of their troubles in love. Only one of those seems to be a positive one.