Bernard Coudray (Gérard Depardieu), a teacher, lives with his wife and small son in quiet, idyllic rural France. One day, though, a married couple moves into the house next door. Strangely enough, the woman -- Mathilde Bauchard (Fanny Ardant) -- happens to be Coudray's ex-lover, with whom he had an intense affair years earlier. Coudray resumes his obsession with Bauchard, and their rekindled romance threatens to destroy both their marriages -- if it doesn't destroy each of them first.