M. Alexandre Caisse gathers an assembly of seven building residents together in his living room. Conversation floats from member to member, discussing how much holiday time the French are now entitled to. The host tells the Aunt of Mlle. Renard, whose name no one is sure of, that he is sorry to hear her niece isn’t well enough to join them. The niece has, it emerges, been molested by a stranger; she was found collapsed on the fifth-floor landing and now lies sedated in a shuttered room. The neighbors each describe the scene from their vantage point, agreeing the perpetrator had looked respectable, sympathetic, natively French. But the aunt says her daughter was always too trusting, and M. Labarrière reminds them of two preceding incidents in the building, creating the general air of danger.

M. Minnazzoli suggests an electronic key code system to protect residents’ safety and the assembly deliberates this solution, all agreeing that far too many foreigners had proliferated in the country and suddenly their fair skin seemed a minority. French culture is dying, M. Labarrière contends. Conversation gradually turns to reminiscence: about the era of doormen, different political administrations, simpler pleasures, the convent that had once occupied their building site. Presently the group disbands, leaving together for safety.