Twenty-nine-year-old graduate philosophy student Paul Dedalus (Amalric) has difficulty making decisions—like how to finish his thesis, or which woman he wants to be with: his on/off/on-again girlfriend of the past ten years, his feisty colleague, or his best friend's fiancée. Plenty of conversation and gamesmanship—intellectual and sexual—take place among the ensemble cast, as Paul juggles his desires and his responsibilities, meandering along the fuzzy border between student life and adulthood. Desplechin's novelistic romanticism and droll sense of humor (a professor and rival of Paul's has a beloved pet monkey) accentuate this dissection of love and friendship.