Anne believes herself to be just an ordinary French housewife and mother living in the South of France, in an attractive French city not far from the Mediterranean coast. But it is precisely this ‘ordinariness' and her discreet, undramatic character that prove seductive in the eyes of Paul. He is quiet for a different reason, being doomed by an illness that deprives him of his voice en route to certain death. Paul is an older man, mature and sophisticated, who has made a success of his career. Anne is seduced by Paul in turn during the course of their rare, emotionally charged moments together, when verbal communication is difficult. An ethereal love is born. The lovers are destined to go their separate ways. Paul is reconciled to death; for Anne, life will have to start again.