Jeanne is a Freudian analyst who thinks she has detected homicidal tendencies in her nephew, aged 5. She also knows that - according to Freud's dictum - "everything is settled" by the age of five. No aspect of a child's personality is likely to alter in any significant way thereafter. Jeanne therefore decides to examine the remorseless development of her nephew's criminal persona, until such time as the crime she expects is committed : the nephew kills his aunt - and thus eliminates the only person who knew of his criminal tendencies. The young criminal, René, is represented by a female attorney named Solange. Her aim is to demonstrate the intricate play of subtle connections between the victim of a crime and the (future) criminal, over a period of more than ten years. Increasingly, the young man appears to consider that his lawyer and his deceased aunt are one and the same person. At the same time, the lawyer starts to see the young man as reincarnation of her son, who died in a car crash. Because the ghost of Jeanne inhabits the body of Solange, the young criminal may be granted a second chance.