Against the backdrop of timid hopes and noble dreams of a better future, the young part-time saleswoman, Mathilda, gives birth to her first baby girl. As the arrival of little Gloria brings together her working-class family--proud Uber driver dad, Nicolas; night-cleaner mother Sylvie; her kindly bus-driver husband, Richard; Mathilda's step-sister, Aurore, and her ostentatious boyfriend, Bruno--Mathilda's absent birth father, the grizzled, haiku-reciting ex-convict, Daniel, receives news that he has become a grandfather. Now, after spending twenty long years in a Rennes prison for a hideous youth crime, regretful Daniel returns to his hometown of Marseilles, and, inadvertently, becomes a pillar of the financially hard-pressed family, providing support when each member is a hair's breadth away from despair. And, amid a series of bad luck and in-your-face capitalism, innocent Gloria commands everyone's attention. When earthly glory is but ephemeral, is the child destined to be another cog in the machine or the hope of the world?
—Nick Riganas