In Paris the beautiful divorcée Rosalie spends time with César, a coarse but good-hearted scrap merchant. At a wedding she sees her first love David, a shy graphic artist. Despite the efforts of César to stifle the renewed relationship, David and Rosalie run away to Sète on the Mediterranean. Distraught at being abandoned, César tracks them down and offers Rosalie her family's old holiday home on the island of Noirmoutier in the Atlantic, which he has bought. She accepts and all her family come to spend the summer there, but she falls into depression. In an effort to rally her, César goes to find David and persuades him to join them. This well-intentioned ploy backfires because Rosalie then runs away. Left together, the two rivals become good friends. A year later they are enjoying lunch when a taxi draws up and out steps Rosalie.