Paul Savoie

Nicolas, a famous doctor and scientist, has an incurable disease and knows he is going to die. He is ageing, suffering from insomnia, caught in a bad marriage to a younger woman, and father to a teenage daughter he doesn’t understand. The only thing connecting him to life is the affection of his adopted daughter, Katia. In her thirties, she has abandoned her career as an actress and is struggling with deep depression against which he feels powerless.

Marie and Pierre want a child but they're infertile, and modern medicine is their only hope. Antoine, an eminent biologist, is willing to help them, but first they have to get past government official Hélène.

A therapist's client, a young auditioning actress, a guru's disciple, a secretary, a wife: five short rape stories before the start of the main story. Suzanne, a nurse, returns home at midnight after her work. She is attacked by a man who forces her into his truck, beats her, insults her, rapes her. The following medical examination and statements at the police station are felt as an extension of the rape. Library documents broaden the subject to all those women who, during the Vietnam War among others, serve as distractions to the warriors, to this barbaric practice still current in Africa, clitoridectomy, "the most absolute rape, that of the woman within the woman."

A political activist is victimised and exploited by a childhood friend.