1960. rock, the first twists, a harsh winter. 

All the more harsh since, in Belgian companies, the announcement of the social regression measures decided by the government, triggered a wildcat strike among the workers. 

Three of them. André (Philippe Léotard). Albert (Ronny Coutteure) and Fred (Paul Louka) are at the forefront of a fight that promises to be hot and risky. 

Very quickly the whole country was paralyzed. The gendarmerie, then the army take place at strategic points. Opposite a million strikers. 

André enters the conflict, entangled in his own story: conflict with his wife, who dreams of social promotion and does not want children; conflict with his father (Christian Barbier), a former resistance fighter and experienced activist, too wise for his taste; finally conflict with the union organization, which curbs his impatience and forces him to adopt strategy.

This strike which escapes him gives a bitter taste to the end of year celebrations. During the New Year's Eve dinner, André leaves the family table. 

He leaves alone, on a motorbike, to wander in the night and finds Julien, a friend, with whom he seeks a way out of his worry. Popular balls, private evenings follow one another without providing any remedy. 

Yet when he meets Monique (Françoise Bette), divorced and a child, he finds an outstretched hand. The child that André never had is there. Dream for André, weight for Monique, the child to share will be their meeting point. But, the breaking dawn wakes them from an impossible dream and they leave each other without hope of seeing each other again. 

Strongly shaken, André will now live on the fringes of the strike. . 

Fred, his best friend, tries to reintegrate him into the movement that the union is relaunching, but André refuses. 

The struggle has hardened, the assemblies of strikers are becoming more stormy, the clashes with the police are more numerous and more violent.

For her part, Monique experiences an inner upheaval which throws her, at the height of a riot, into the arms of a demonstrator, Charles (Marcel Dossogne), a teacher. 

She gains, in this brief affair, a new balance, the time to understand that she can direct her life. 

The exhausting strike leaves, in the devastated streets, "disappointed men, ready to turn the page and a final sabotage, perpetrated by André's father, will be the high point of the struggle. The return to work takes place across the country. It is the moment, for everyone, to find their place, their work, with hope or nostalgia. . 

 

Only André cannot accept this return to everyday life.