Elise and Didier fall in love at first sight, in spite of their differences. He talks, she listens. He's a romantic atheist, she's a religious realist. When their daughter becomes seriously ill, their love is put on trial.

A thirty-something novelist and impending father looks back on his all-too-formative years in the hapless, alcohol-ridden milieu of his youth in 1980s rural Flanders, Belgium.