Alain Guillot

In the French harbor city of Le Havre, an elderly shoeshiner with an ailing wife crosses paths with a young African refugee pursued by the police for deportation.

8-year-old Vicky has a mysterious gift: she can recreate any scent she comes across, even that of her beloved mother Joanne. When her estranged aunt Julia suddenly returns to town, the invocation of her fragrance plunges the young girl back in time to unravel a past replete with family secrets.

Alain and Bruno don’t know each other and have nothing in common. Yet, they do share one thing: they are both complete outsiders. Shut out even from their own lives, they have no real contact with the world around them. In the eyes of others, they are practically invisible.

Ten years after their Upper Sixth, Bruno, Momo, Leon and Alain meet together in the waiting room of a maternity hospital. The father of the awaited baby is Tomasi, their best friend at that time, who died one month before due to an overdose. They remember their teenage, their laughs, their dreams, their stupid pranks... a description of the French youth in the middle of the seventies.

September, 1986. Alice and Martin are 17 years old. They come from provinces to Montesquieu high school in the capital. Like many youngs of their age, born in the 70s and nostalgic of a too comfortable childhood, they progress carefully in life. While Alice and Martin are finding their footing, demonstrations against the Devaquet law and the tragic death of Malik Oussekine are happening.