Vera Baxter (Claudine Gabay) is talking to a woman in a bar. It seems that the woman was attracted to her by hearing her name called out: "Baxter, Vera Baxter." In response to her new friend's queries, Vera recounts the story of her life, beginning with marrying her no-good husband Cayre (Gerard Depardieu), who has been using her for some time as a kind of unpaid prostitute in order to keep his failing building business afloat.