Recruited as sales manager for the Paris branch of a US undertaker’s, Gabriel goes on a three-month training course to learn on the job beside Gervais Bron, who has been in the trade for 15 years. He manages to hide his new job from his parents and girlfriend, Claire, who see him as a successful musician, until the day when he charges an elderly man a fortune for a funeral, that old man being none other than Claire’s grandfather.