Paris, 1987. As the trial of Lyon's Gestapo head Klaus Barbie plays out on television, French businessman Victor Bastien (Hippolyte Girardot) finds himself distracted from his work and increasingly obsessed with piecing together the truth about his family's history. As he sorts through photographs, letters and memorabilia, the documents he discovers -- including an Aryan declaration written by his father -- tell of the fate that befell his parents during the war, and he is quick to rush to judgment. But to his frustration, his mother Rivka (Jeanne Moreau) has shuttered away her past and refuses to share any memories with him.

With tensions growing between Victor and his sister Tania (Dominique Blanc) -- who defends their father's declaration and mother's silence -- his wife (Emmanuelle Devos) and children accompany him on a visit to the tiny village where Rivka's parents were forced to hide during the war. And as Victor finally begins to reconcile himself with his family's fate, Rivka makes the decision to confide her past to the members of her family who may have a chance at shaping the future.