When her health begins to fail, Berthe (Marthe Villalonga), an aging widow, is forced to live with her successful but emotionally distant daughter, Emilie (Catherine Deneuve). In an attempt to mend her family, Emilie invites her estranged brother Antoine (Daniel Auteuil), a troubled neurosurgeon, to her house for Christmas. But when an argument between Antoine and Emilie's husband, Bruno (Jean-Pierre Bouvier), erupts at the dinner table, the family's troubled past rises to the surface.