France (Catherine Deneuve) is a haughty, bourgeoise wife abandoned by her husband by the side of the road after a vicious quarrel. She meets Charles (Gerard Depardieu), a doctor who has spent the last two nights taking his car engine apart and now can't get it back together. The meeting of the two strangers is the focus of the film, along with their encounters with characters at a truck stop. The lonely doctor understands the disturbed woman who is in denial and who thinks her husband will be coming back for her.