It's a family affair. The Menard family have a rituel : every week they meet at Henri's café and go on to have dinner at "Aux ducs de Bretagne", the best restaurant this small provincial suburb has to offer. This week there's a fly in the ointment : Arlette, Henri's wife, misses the roll call. She's gone off for a week "to think things over". On the regular scale of events it's no big deal, but it builds up and spills over into other, deeper dramas which this familiy have cherished and nurtured since childhood. A family is like a gift -once you've been given it, you pretty much have to keep it.
