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Les amoureux sont seuls au monde
At the inn:
G�rard Favier (Jouvet) walks up to a street vendor and buys seven lucky charms (to last him a week). The vendor says sales will pick up after lunch when people are drunk. "...because when they're drunk, they believe in happiness.." says Favier.
Inside the inn, there's a woman doing a game of patience. He picks up her scarf and tells her his name, and the name of every object in the room until she tells him hers. She's annoyed, and he asks her to pretend they're watching this scene at a movie theatre: wouldn't she want the leading lady to be nice to the leading man? A man walks in, asking about the bus schedule. Favier then shares his good luck charms with Sylvia, so that they can have 3 and a half day of happiness. They are disturbed by the innkeeper and we learn that they're really husband and wife and reliving their first meeting 18 years earlier. He goes to the piano, he's a composer. She doesn't like what he's playing 'except this little bit'. 'That part is by Mozart actually', he tells her.
There's a wedding party going on outside. Since the musicians haven't arrived, they ask Favier to supply the dance music, 'the lady could pass the hat'. Favier plays polkas and as they leave, they give the money to the lucky charm vendor.
Still reliving their first encounter, they sit on a bench and Sylvia reminds him that he had promised to write a love song for her back then, and he never did. (He sang A la claire fontaine instead) Heading for home, they hear his music coming from a house. 'I'm a hit in the neighborood,' he says. They listen and compliment the young pianist who, not knowing whom she's addressing, sharply criticizes the composition. Favier says who he is, they go in and the girl's brother Jules (but he'd rather be called Douglas) walks in, complaining about their living conditions and their father. Favier asks the girl to come play for him sometime.
He starts teaching her and she neglects her friends. When she comes home after a lesson, the brother is leaving with the silverware. He wants the money to have his book of poetry published. They argue and he laughs at her because she never goes out with boys and is always glued to her piano. Her father then walks in, he's got the poster for her upcoming recital. He's really proud and gives her her first telephone.
At Favier's house:
Favier is on the floor sorting out his music. Monelle calls to tell him she now has the phone. She has nothing else to say so he invites her to lunch the next day. 'Do you know how to hang up? he asks. You do like this.' and he hangs up.
At the restaurant:
Monelle talks of the dress she'll be wearing at the recital. He gives her advice on how to deal with nerves and on her career in general. When he tells her not to fool around, she says she dreams of a solid relationship like he has with his wife. He buys newspapers but one is a gossip rag and he tears it in disgust.
At the concert hall:
Favier is nervous, critics are argueing. As Monelle is playing, they pass around the paper with an article hinting at an affair between Favier and Monelle and speculate on how true it is. After Monelle is shown the paper, she keeps thinking about it.
At Favier's house:
Sylvia is on the phone with a friend who is reading her the article. Upset, she hangs up and leaves the room. When Favier sees the paper, he calls her back. Why didn't she say anything? To test him? Doesn't she trust him? He then leaves to go to the newspaper's office and asks the editor to remove his glasses...
At Monelle's house:
Monelle's brother is teasing her about the alleged affair. The father walks in looking for the silverware and has a fight with his son. Favier arrives to set things straight with Monelle's father and is a bit upset that he's taking matters so lightly, and that he thinks him too old to be a real danger for his daughter. Monelle walks in and asks her father to leave. She declares her love to Favier 'Come now child, you don't say something like that to a man my age, you can't love me.' She says she must love him because she thinks of him all the time, she's unhappy and she finds him handsome. When she comes closer, he realizes she's been drinking, they argue and he tries to leave. She then promises to never mention it again. As a gesture of good will, he invites her to take part in a family outing.
At the cinema:
They're watching a hilariously badly dubbed western. When they leave, Sylvia must go back for her gloves. Favier and Monelle are looking at two young lovers waiting for a bus and they try to guess what they're saying to each other. When Monelle says G�rard's name, he says 'You're cheating Monelle, it was only a game, not reality'. Sylvia comes back and Favier jokes that Monelle would have preferred to spend the evening with her boyfriend. 'I swear to you I'm seeing no one!'. (She uses the familiar 'Tu' which shocks everybody). When she leaves, Favier says 'She's only a child'. 'One should not play with children', says Sylvia.
At home:
Sylvia tells her husband that if she thought he could be more happy with another, she'd disappear. He reassures her and asks what she meant by that. He says he'll stop seeing Monelle altogether and Sylvia is worried that that means he's scared of what he might do. As they're going to bed, she says she should have chosen a man with a more practical, less decorative face...
Two months later:
Talking to her friend, Monelle pretends she's still seeing Favier.
Sylvia goes to see Ludo. It's 2 months since Favier has seen Monelle and now he's depressed, he can't write music anymore. She worries he might be in love with Monelle and missing her. She asks Ludo to convince him to take the girl to dinner: if he's still depressed after seeing her, then she'll know Monelle wasn't the cause of his depression.
At Favier's house:
When Favier comes home that night, he's in a good mood. His depression has lifted, he's a new man. He finally found the little song he had promised her 18 years ago. Sylvia asks that it be a secret between the two of them, and not to show the song to anyone.
At Monelle's house:
Monelle is playing Sylvia's little song. Her brother walks in. He's written a nonsensical poem 'in the shape of a water stream'. Monelle leaves to meet Sylvia in a restaurant. 'I'm playing my last card' she says.
In the restaurant:
Sylvia asks about Monelle's meeting with G�rard. Monelle says they had dinner and afterwards walked in the streets and he wrote a song for her.
At Favier's house:
G�rard answers the phone. He's talking about the preparations for a trip. After a while, we realize he was talking to Ludo and the trip will be a second honeymoon for Sylvia and him. He had been troubled by Monelle but is over it now. Ludo receives a letter at that point from Sylvia, a suicide note.
Back at the inn:
Favier and Ludo go back to the inn. The innkeeper gives them Sylvia's scarf and asks how she is. As they leave, he shows them the new shop belonging to the lucky charms vendor: he bought a lottery ticket with the money Favier gave him and won. Going back through the woods, Favier says he didn't say anything about Sylvia's death to the innkeeper so that she'll still be alive somewhere. 'Even if it's only in the memory of an idiot'.
