The owner of a successful trading business, on the day of his forty-eighth birthday, suddenly disappears without warning anyone. First, he travels by train to Marseille; then, together with a random fellow passenger, he makes it to Nice, where, having lost almost all his money, he gets a job at a night establishment. There, unexpectedly, he runs into his first wife—who, just like him now, had once left her family. The shock becomes a turning point: the man finds inner firmness and feels like himself again. Now he is ready to go back.