When boy-friend Georges dumps would-be writer and hypochondriac Pénélope, she goes through two days of horrible, self- centered pain: she asks her friend Sophie to help, leaves messages for Georges, yells at people in stores, jumps into the Seine, quits her shrink, consults a fortune-teller, and over-medicates. The long- suffering Sophie tires of Pénélope's melodrama. A friendly stranger, an ex-psychologist, rescues her from a drug-induced swoon, and his passing remark about her father begins to free her of histrionics. Late at night, with her new friend, she goes into the woods in search of a cosmic destination; this proves to be her first selfless act.