Claire is a midwife in a maternity hospital. She is humane and helpful and gives herself entirely to her patients. But despite that her life is not a bed of roses. Her hospital is about to close its doors and the devoted woman is determined not to work in the new modern hospital she regards as a "baby factory". Her personal life is no triumph either: she is single and does not make friends easily. To make matters worse her student son Simon is gradually leaving home as he is developing a relationship with his new sweetheart Lucie. It is the moment that Béatrice her dead father's former mistress chooses to resurface. The eccentric spendthrift sensual amoral woman (Claire's exact opposite in fact) is really the last kind of person she needs to mix with. But Béatrice soon informs her that she suffers from brain cancer and she has nobody else to turn to. Torn between rejection and duty what is Claire going to do?