During a desultory night on the town—playing pool, buying the paper, eating fries—two men talk about their experiences with women. One of them (Hubert Deschamps) disparages his ex-wife, “the queen of whores,” who he admits to beating with his fists. The other (Claude Berri) is enamored of the prostitute he was with earlier in the evening, and thinks he might marry her. Without realizing it, both men are talking about Janine, a woman whose essential humanity they fail to see because of their own projections.