Having been mayor of his village in the rolling farmlands of Normandy for nearly a quarter of a century, Alain du Perier de Larsan has decided to step down. Now that he is weakened by illness he no longer leaves his castle, the last remaining vestige of his family heritage. The old mansion teems with memories harking back to his extraordinary lineage. As the elections approach, every day a steady stream of visitors comes to see the Count at home. The Deputy Mayor has brought the City Council members to discuss the years they have been working together and how difficult his succession will be. Other visits are purely social: a fellow Resistance fighter, a couple of neighboring farmers, and one of his former cooks, among others. These encounters are ideal moments for the past to resurface and for confidences to be shared, and through them the personality of this 80 year-old aristocrat gradually begins to emerge: an anti-conformist and a rebel profoundly affected by the Resistance and deportation, the first crucial experiences in a lifetime completely dominated by the refusal to accept things as they are.