Olivier, the nine-year-old son of Elisabeth and country veterinarian Serge, vanishes one afternoon on the way to his grandmother s house. The emotional aftermath of his disappearance sends his father packing from France to Africa and nearly destroys his mother, who clings to her remaining child Nadine--and her devoted neighbor Marcel. Several years later, having relocated to the city, the police investigator who handled the case meets a Paris rent-boy whom he believes is the missing Olivier. Once he returns to his rural home, the teenage Olivier tries to assuage his mother s now-entrenched grief and heal the rift between his reunited parents. Meanwhile, he must overcome his brooding adolescent sister s jealousy and doubts about his identity and reconcile his sleazy street life with his picturesque new surroundings. Questions about the tight-lipped Olivier s true motivations continue to crop up, however, threatening to send his mother over the edge for good.