A man named Constant escapes from prison. With the police on his trail, he hides in an abandoned barge, close to an isolated village by the canal. Unaccustomed to seeing new faces, the villagers become watchers of the banks: Jeanne, depressed since her husband died, Silvia, her adopted daughter, a pianist and who dreams of use her inheritance to move to Paris, Melchior, the dog - and the neighbors who danced on the barge at the time of its splendor: Horace and her daughter Mauricette, Victor and Martha, Eric and Vincent. But one of the women in the village has recognized Constant, she agrees to be silent on the condition that he commits murder for her. Alas, nothing ever comes as planned.