 Catherine, hugely popular (and wealthy) from her long-running television soap opera, longs for glory on the big screen. She prepares to star in a Feydeau farce about to open on the 17th, but despite all her success she wonders if her work has any value or meaning. Jean-François, piano prodigy with an international reputation, is preparing for a major Beethoven recital on the 17th, yet he basically just wants to be alone. Jacques, a businessman turned art connoisseur, has amassed an extraordinary, highly personal art collection, but on the 17th it will all be sold off. Catherine, Jean-François and Jacques have all devoted their lives to art, yet what kinds of lives has art given them? They sometimes cross paths and nurse their neuroses at a café where they are waited on by Jessica, recently arrived in Paris on her own quest for fame and fortune.