In Nantes, a bored young man named Roland is letting life pass him by when he has a chance meeting with a woman he knew in his teens: she's , now a cabaret dancer. She's also the devoted single mother of a young son, and she harbors the hope that his father, who deserted her during pregnancy, will return. Roland realizes he's in love with , and this gives sudden purpose to his life. But how does she feel? Woven into the story are an American sailor who likes and is kind to her son; a girl on the eve of her 14th birthday, when all things seem romantic; the girl's mother, a lonely widow; and, an aging woman who misses her son. And who's the rich guy in the Cadillac?