In a small Corsican village, Hélène's life is made up of days that follow one after the other, all of them the same.

This unassuming, discreet woman works as a housemaid in a hotel and seems happy with her husband, Ange, and their fifteen-year-old daughter, Lisa. Her modest and monotonous life seems entirely mapped out.

Everything changes the day when, going about her work, she comes across a young, very attractive American couple playing chess on a hotel balcony.

Initially intrigued, then completely crazy about the game, Hélène obstinately puts everything into place to master the rules of chess to a level of excellence. She can count on the assistance of Doctor Kröger, a mysterious inhabitant of the village. But this positive metamorphosis toward a new freedom doesn't occur without profoundly modifying Hélène's relationships with her family, friends, and the other village inhabitants.