Violette Toussaint is the caretaker at a cemetery in a small town in Bourgogne. Her life is lived to the predictable rhythms of the often funny, always moving confidences that casual mourners, regular visitors, and sundry colleagues share with her. Violettes routine is disrupted one day by the arrival of Julien Solelocal police chiefwho has come to scatter the ashes of his recently deceased mother on the gravesite of a complete stranger. It soon becomes clear that Juliens inexplicable gesture is intertwined with Violettes own complicated past.