Japan, 1944. Trained for intelligence work, Hiroo Onoda, 22 years old, discovers a philosophy contrary to the official line: no suicide; stay alive whatever happens; the mission is more important than anything else. Sent to Lubang, a small island in the Philippines where the Americans are about to land, this role will be to wage a guerrilla war until the return of the Japanese troops. The Empire will surrender soon after; Onoda, 10,000 days later.

Paris, fall 2015. Every week, Philippe Dayan receives in his office a stone's throw from Place de la République, a surgeon in the throes of romantic disarray, a couple in crisis, a teenager with suicidal tendencies and a BRI agent traumatized by his intervention at the Bataclan. Listening to these upended lives, the emotional earthquake that unleashes within him is unprecedented. In an attempt to escape, he reconnects with his former analyst, Esther, with whom he had cut ties for nearly 12 years.