Gerard (Gerard Depardieu) is an engineer who has just been left by his wife (Zouzou) for feminist reasons and has custody of his nine-month-old son, whom he cares for deeply. His next romance with Valerie (Ornella Muti), his son's daycare worker, threatens that custody. Despondent over the changing roles of men in the face of a dawning social feminism, he responds drastically.—Clarke Fountain