Témoignages de réfugiés politiques grecs fuyant la dictature des colonels, intercalés dans une fiction : une étudiante d'origine grecque accueille un journaliste réfugié et en tombe un peu amoureuse. Ce film, en cours de montage, a été subtilisé, interdit par le ministère du Commerce, qui vendait des mirages aux colonels. Le film inachevé est montré en copie de travail, rescapé de l'interdiction.

Diego is one of the chiefs of the Spanish Communist Party. On his way from Madrid to Paris, he is arrested at the border for an ID check but manages to get free. When he arrives in Paris, he starts searching for one of his comrades to prevent him from going to Madrid where he could be arrested.

In the seacoast town of Boulogne, antique furniture saleswoman Hélène lives with her stepson, Bernard, who's back from military duty in Algiers. An old lover of Hélène's comes to visit, Alphonse, with his niece Françoise; he too is back from Algiers, where he ran a café. Bernard speaks of his fiancée, Muriel, whom Hélène has not met. The past is obscured by guilt, misperceptions, and missed possibilities. Appearances deceive, things change. As Hélène and Alphonse try to sort out a renewal, everyone seems off-kilter just enough to hint that all cannot end well.