Toussaint and Madeleine have always loved each other. They were born in the village of Balba, in Corsica. There is a picture of them when they were two years old holding hands. They are now sixty. The time for retirement is here and they return to Corsica. Toussaint spent thirty years underground, in the RATP maintenance workshops. He is happy but Madeleine misses Paris, its windows and her son Martin, who is a doctor at the Pitié hospital. The love that Madeleine has for her son is so great that Toussaint amuses himself by telling him that she should ask the Pope for a derogation to marry him. Toussaint and Madeleine arrive at Balba at the beginning of winter, the days are short, the bar is closed and there are not enough men to play belotte. Sometimes the silence is broken by Napoleon, the village madman, in charge of watching over the closed houses, who screams that Corsica is going to die.