Henri is a middle-aged travelling umbrella salesman from Saumur who lives a sexless and unhappy married life with his puritan wife and two children. Painting is the only true passion of Henri but he also has an affection for female buttocks. One night, on the roads of Brittany he hits a boar with his car. Émile, a rude and carefree painter who lives in a cottage near Riec-sur-Belon meets him and invites him to stay at his house while the car is being fixed. Henri falls in love with his Canadian live-in girlfriend Angela who draws Henri's attention with her beautiful buttocks. They leave Émile after a violent confrontation and move to Pont-Aven, 'the city of painters'. Angela encourages Henri to continue his life as a painter and he sees this as an opportunity to leave his earlier life behind. However, Angela soon dumps him for Émile and Henri becomes a drunkard, butt of jokes in the town, and a painter unable to sell a single painting. Marie, the teenage maid working at the pension ...