Claudine Guillemin

Frederic leads a bourgeois life; he is a partner in a small Paris office and is happily married to Helene, a teacher expecting her second child. In the afternoons, Frederic daydreams about other women, but has no intention of taking any action. One day, Chloe, who had been a mistress of an old friend, begins dropping by his office. They meet as friends, irregularly in the afternoons, till eventually Chloe decides to seduce Frederic, causing him a moral dilemma.

Elisabeth takes the train from Paris to Rome to join her husband Jacques, an artist. An Italian man approaches her on the train. During the meal they share, he slaps her. This does not prevent Elisabeth from feeling the desire to make love to Leonardo. In the compartment they share, she pleasures herself in front of Leonardo, who scrutinizes her closely with a flashlight. In Rome, Jacques is waiting for her. Over the next few days, Leonardo tries unsuccessfully to rekindle his relationship with Elisabeth. However, tired of painting, Jacques decides to return to Paris to pursue a career in film...

Véronique goes on vacation with her godparents and begins to grow aware of the complexity and power of sexual attraction. She and her godfather develop a relationship which could easily have become sexual, but does not. She confides in her diary afterwards that she wishes she had permitted things to go further.