When he finally returns home and finds out about his wife's cheating, he forgives her and offers her freedom, but she refuses to accept and they come back together.

Looking for a new life, the family (now with two twins) move to Berlin, where Jeanne meets Matthias, a German industrialist who falls in love with her.

A third child is born and shortly after, Louis is summoned to the First Indochina War, forcing his family to return to France.

Filming began in August 1994 in Nancy, where the Place Stanislas was covered in sand to restore its pre-World War II appearance.

The production also shot on the parvis of the Basilique Saint-Epvre and in a building on the avenue Anatole-France where the director reconstructed his childhood apartment.