A man reevaluates his life. Étienne, a married writer, gives a lift to a young hitchhiker called Rudy who is mixed up with a gang of thugs. Étienne takes a liking to Rudy and brings him home, where a strong homoerotic attraction soon develops between them. Étienne also tries to extricate Rudy from his dangerous life in the streets, and seems ready to go to any lengths to achieve this goal..
Jean-Joachim Goriot, a merchant who got rich during the Revolution, is obsessed with the love of his two daughters, whose social promotion he wants. He endows them richly, ruins himself to pay their debts, but Delphine and Anastasie do not return his affection and abandon him at the time of his death to run to a big ball.
