Mercurial, hard-drinking poet Hugh Saunders (Sir Anthony Hopkins) awaits his fortieth birthday, trying to preserve his art and his marriage against the temptations of celebrity and addiction.
Jack White throws a big party at which many of the artists he has produced perform. He has had an eventful life in which he has always remained true to his ideals, first as a footballer, then as a pop singer and then as a producer, even in the face of fierce opposition from others.
In a French seaside town, at a boarding house for civil servants recovering from surgery and maladies, the six male residents' lives change dramatically when two women arrive: Catherine, lively, sexually liberated, willing to kiss, dance, and sleep with the men, and Leonie, reserved, formal, conservative.
Paul, a former womanizer, marries the head of the medical department's "unattractive" daughter Christine because he thinks attractive women can't be trusted and make poor wives.