Objectively, Odette Toulemonde has nothing to be happy about, but is. Balthazar Balsan has everything to be happy about, but isnÔÇÖt. Odette, awkwardly forty, with a delightful hairdresser son and a daughter bogged down in adolescence, spends her days behind the cosmeticÔÇÖs counter in a department store and her nights sewing feathers on costumes for Parisian variety shows. She dreams of thanking Balthazar Balsan, her favorite author, to whom ÔÇô she believes ÔÇô she owes her optimism. The rich and charming Parisian writer then turns up in her life in an unexpected way.
