A contemporary offbeat portrayal of a mixed lot of provincial people before during and after a baptism, a funeral and a wedding ceremony. At the centre of theses events is a woman with unfulfilled ambitions, a questioning rebel of a boy and an unconventional minister. Although seen through the eyes of a boy, this is a film for adults, about adults.

A treatise of the human animal no. 38: HEARTACHE is an absurd depiction of the human being and its eternal tendency to have its heart broken. In eight standalone chapters, we meet the patients at the now closed Sanatorium for Heartache, in their assiduous attempt to cure themselves of this terrible disease. Meanwhile, on Antarctica, we join the penguin Edgar on an epic journey, as he traverses snowy plains and stormy mountains in an attempt to once again be reunited with the love of his life.

The head of a failing French family thinks that fate has smiled down on him when the daughter of a wealthy man agrees to be married to his son. The daughter and her aunt then travel out to the French countryside to meet with the family, unaware that a mysterious 'beast' is stalking the vicinity.

Returning by train to the French port of Le Havre, Jacques Lantier, a tormented railwayman, meets by chance the impulsive stationmaster Roubard and Séverine, his wife.