Nice, at the end of summer. Michel Matarasso is a worn-out cop. He tries, by every means possible, to get sick leave so as to get his life together. Finally free of his professional obligations, he drags around his chronic malaise and his solitude, full of vague but tenacious dissatisfactions. During this intervening period he discovers a woman who will turn his life on its head: she's called Sandra Bandini and she commited suicide in her own home. This discovery lights a spark that sets off a flame in him. Matarasso constructs a conviction for himself: the encounter with Bandini was no chance thing. This woman is his own reflection. Together they can find a way out. In spite of everything, he then sets out on an improbable task: to pull himself out his depression and to find a meaning to his life, by falling in love with this young, dead woman.