A sunny beach in Britanny on an August afternoon. On the line of the tide, a forty-five-year-old man starts building a sand castle. Three people are watching him from different places on the beach. It is midday. The first one is called Jumbo. He is a little boy, hidden under a pedalo. The night before, the man who builds sand castles and the child talked to each other. Jumbo undertook to keep an eye on the castle built the previous day, but the castle was destroyed. Jumbo feels slightly guilty. About this and other things. Other recent events that he links to the incident. The second one is sitting on the bench, on the viewpoint above the beach. He is a thirty-year-old man and the youngest brother of the man who builds the castle. He watches him from far away. He thinks about him, to the already very old rivalry between them. François is the story of a conflict between two brothers. The third one is lying on a towel, a little set back from the castle. She is a woman in her forties, called Zaza and she is both men's sister. Zaza is loosing her footing in life. It is the story of a strong woman who does not understand what is happening to her and will do everything she can to save herself. Or how one voluntarily chooses to shut oneself off from the world. The filmfollows each of these characters in turn throughtout the afternoon.