Behaviourist Prof Henri Laborit, playing himself, uses the stories of the lives of three people to discuss theories of contemporary social behaviour within modern Western society; Rene has left the family farm to be a technical manager at a textile factory and must face the anxiety caused by corporate downsizing; Janine is a self-educated actress/stylist who learns that the wife of her lover, Jean, is dying and must decide to let them reunite and Jean, himself, is an educated, controversial, career-climbing writer/politician at a crossroads in life.