In Paris the beautiful divorcée Rosalie spends time with César, a coarse but good-hearted scrap merchant.

Distraught at being abandoned, César tracks them down and offers Rosalie her family's old holiday home on the island of Noirmoutier in the Atlantic, which he has bought.

"[3] TV Guide called it an "intelligent and funny romance", and added "what makes the film... worth watching is the interplay among Montand, Schneider, and Frey.

"[4] The New York Times compared it to "exposure to very good, even subtle, table manners—impressive but not too involving", and said the film "generally remains on the surface... like the type of slick magazine fiction to which it belongs.

"[5] Time Out was also skeptical, saying that the film "is saved from colour supplement chic only by sympathetic performances from Schneider and Montand.