In this film, director Rene Feret tells the story of his parents' lives. In 1935 his mother Aline works in her parents' cafe in a mining town in northern France. There, she meets a customer, Pierre and decides she is going to marry him. In a reversal of roles, she is the one who proposes to him, and she also engineers a false pregnancy to persuade her parents to okay the match. With a few stops along the way, the story picks up after the war with the birth of the couple's third son, who is given the name Rene in memory of their first, dead son. Never rich, they achieve some level of financial stability just as their sons are about to head off to the city for college. The love between the two older people is highlighted in a poignant scene as, just as he is about to die, the father shares a champagne toast with his wife in memory of one of their happier moments.