Joey Wellman an American cartoonist from Cleveland now largely forgotten at home visits France with his partner Lena to attend an exhibition in Paris about the comic strip bande dessinée which features his work He also hopes to be reconciled with his daughter Elsie who has been a student in Paris for two years in flight from the American culture of which she sees her father as a typical example Elsie is naively infatuated with French literature and is trying to secure an introduction to the brilliant university professor Christian Gauthier an expert on Flaubert but also an enthusiast for comic books The meeting of father and daughter goes badly but Elsie is persuaded to join Joey and Lena for the weekend at the country house of Gauthiers mother Isabelle During a comicthemed masquerade party all of the characters are made to reconsider their present and past relationships
