Olivier, the nine-year-old son of Elisabeth and country veterinarian Serge, vanishes one afternoon on the way to his grandmother's house. The emotional aftermath of his disappearance sends his father packing from France to Africa and nearly destroys his mother, who clings to her remaining child Nadine--and her devoted neighbor Marcel. Several years later, having relocated to the city, the police investigator who handled the case meets a Paris rent-boy whom he believes is the missing Olivier. Once he returns to his rural home, the teenage Olivier tries to assuage his mother's now-entrenched grief and heal the rift between his reunited parents. Meanwhile, he must overcome his brooding adolescent sister's jealousy and doubts about his identity and reconcile his sleazy street life with his picturesque new surroundings. Questions about the tight-lipped Olivier's true motivations continue to crop up, however, threatening to send his mother over the edge for good.