In 1914, the wealthy Count Forbek announces to his friends his plan to build an extravagant castle, a "temple of happiness", as a home for himself and for them, which he will dedicate to Livia, the woman he intends to marry.

His plans are disrupted by the onset of the First World War, and Livia marries Raoul, an army officer; but in 1920 the castle is sufficiently complete for Forbek to entertain his friends there.

An educational conference brings together delegates who include Walter Guarini, a utopian architect, Nora Winkle, an American anthropologist, Elisabeth Rousseau, an earnest provincial schoolmistress, and Roger Dufresne, a games expert at the Institute.

The determination of Georges Leroux, the conference convenor, to unite everyone in shared ideals of how the next generation should be educated is subverted when Elisabeth's demonstration of her practical method of integrated teaching provokes an outbreak of ideological disputes.

For the fantasy scenes, the graphic artist Enki Bilal (who had previously designed the publicity poster for Mon oncle d'Amérique) created grotesque images of trees, plants and roots, painted on glass, which were placed in front of the camera to give an air of unreality to the filmed sets and landscapes.

[2] For the exterior scenes of the castle, a château on the outskirts of Paris was used; the set designer Jacques Saulnier built a structure around it to give its extravagant aspects which were in a mixture of styles, including many oriental influences.

[8] A rare positive reaction was stated in Sight & Sound: "After Mon oncle d'Amérique, which drew its multiple narratives from the forbidding stuff of the behavioural sciences, Resnais's latest collage seems quite frivolously based, intertwining fairy tale, comedy of manners and Feuillade-like fantasy.