It has been some time since Luc, a 32-year-old actor and Jean-Marc, a 38-year-old French teacher, have seen each other, but the wounds from their seven year love affair are only partially healed. Each of them has current worries as well: Jean-Marc, apparently secure and well off, is tired of the endless procession of insensitive and seductive students; he has also realized that he will never be the great novelist he had hoped to become. He feels, in a word, mediocre. Luc, after years as an obscure stage actor, has found popular success playing "a nut case with a lisp" on a TV sitcom, but along with fame has come an unexpected and unwelcome loss of privacy and a struggle for self-respect. To make matters worse, Luc's father is dying.

During this evening at Jean-Marc's house, the two men dredge up the good and the bad memories; they confront each other about past injustices; they examine each other's grey hairs; finally, they confess their fears and disillusionments and they comfort each other.