Dr. Françoise Gailland has a hectic schedule, which causes her to have little time to spend with her family, which consists of her husband Gérard, her pregnant teenager daughter Élisabeth, and her sullen son Julien. However, she does manage to find the time to spend with her lover, Daniel Letessier. While her life in such disarray, she learns that she has cancer. Françoise tries to put a brave face on it, and is determined to face the life-threatening disease with courage.
In this sardonic comedy, after an executive is killed in a mysterious automobile accident, the French offices of his multinational company is inundated with mysteriously threatening be-ribboned anti-capitalist tracts, delivered overnight to everyone's desks. Later, the executive's body is brought to company offices for an official wake -- only no one at the company has ordered that such a thing be done. A mysterious prankster, who is able to imitate the voice of the company's president, has arranged these things. When Americans from the head office get wind of these developments, they institute a search for the perpetrator which leads to mysterious subterranean passages under the company's skyscraper.
In an Algerian village, the workers of a salt mine go on strike because of low wages. The owner calls the army to control the men, but a young woman cuts off the water to force the troops to retreat.
