On Christmas Eve, Eugène shoots a bullet through his head and is taken to hospital. He is in a critical condition. For several hours he hangs on the brink between life and death. He stands up in his thoughts, has a cigarette and meets Renée, a young lady who is also a patient. She comes to the hospital every week for a dialysis and knows the building like the back of her hand. She tells him she needs a kidney to stay alive...