Amedeo Magis (Jean Rochefort), a fiftyish Sorbonne professor suffering from severe psychological and existential distress, isolates himself in a country villa along with his wife Elena (Marie-Christine Barrault), his mother (Lila Kedrova), and his daughter Gloria (Jacqueline Lustig). Obsessed with controlling his surroundings and resisting the natural progression of his family's roles, Amedeo orchestrates psychological games and role-reversals among the women in the household. Driven by guilt and obsessive compulsions, his maneuvers breach taboo boundaries—specifically surrounding implicit incestuous desires and domestic dynamic manipulations—ultimately leading to emotional destruction.