Marcel Slivovitz, a Jewish Communist, is a furrier in Paris in the 1950s. His wife and children are with him, but his sister and his nephew live much farther away, in the USSR. This Russian nephew arrives in Paris one day, with an official Soviet ballet troupe. As a militant, Marcel has the right to take the nephew to a party given by his local Communist cell. He is delighted because of is family feelings and his political convictions, and he is proud of his Soviet nephew.But the latter is not the model Communist he seems to be, and he takes advantage of his uncle’s hospitality to disappear. Without his uncle’s knowledge, he defects to the West.Marcel’s world totters. His Party peers suspect him of complicity, and his political ideas are shaken. He is disoriented, and joins the ranks of those whom History has made sick and bitter.This is an uncompromising film, based dramatically on the evolution of a political consciousness. No novel-like or even sexual plot is involved – but family relationships and friendship are dealt with in a very sensitive way. The political problem retains a very human dimension in this film.