Lucien, an industrialist, is the victim of a failed anti-capitalist attack by an anarchist.
Lucien Lachenay was orginally meant to be played by Gérard Depardieu, Alphonse by Jean-Pierre Léaud.
Jeanne Moreau narrates the film with her velvet voice. André Dussollier plays the part of the industrialist. Claude Jade, one of Truffaut's favorite actresses who appeared in his Antoine Doinel series of films, plays the mother of a little girl who finds refuge during a flood at the apartment of Dussolier and Kristin Scott-Thomas. The film also features Sabine Haudepin, many years after Jules et Jim, and a brief appearance by Helen Scott, a friend of Truffaut and Alfred Hitchcock.