Widower, a misanthropic and taciturn peasant, Henri Duchenin (Jean Lefebvre) revisits his marital past. Suspicious, he dismissed his niece Elisabeth and André, her husband, who wanted to combine their farm with his, then he hired a clerk (Bernard Menez). One evening when he was watching television, Henri was very impressed by a program on metempsychosis. Obviously shaken, he suddenly spares his pets. However, shortly after visiting a large cattle market, Henri suddenly comes to a halt in front of a heifer who calmly devours the lilacs of a florist. Lilacs having been the favorite flowers of Mary, his late wife, the peasant is immediately convinced that this is a typical case of animal reincarnation. So he buys the cow he calls - Marie. Marie the cow will therefore live happy days, surrounded by the affection of Henri until the day when the deceitful André kidnaps her to take her to the slaughterhouse. Fortunately Henri intervenes. But it will come too late when the same André allows "Marie" to cheat on him with a bull. Too late and very awkwardly: his tractor pours and Henri leaves the human world. However, a few months later, the clerk hears himself called in a cattle market: it is a small calf. A little calf named Henri.