Sitting alone at a table laid for two, a woman is about to blow out a candle on a small birthday cake. At this moment, Serge, her boyfriend, arrives. She welcomes him coldly, reproaching him for his lateness and his lies, and threatens to leave. Trying to restrain her, Serge begins to justify himself. If he arrived late, it was because he bumped into Jean, whom he hadn't seen for ten years. Back then, he was a cemetery caretaker, in Sète.