The inn owner Albert Quentin has been to China with a French expedition corps and cannot forget his time there. Every evening he gets drunk to revive his adventures.
When his hometown Tigreville is bombed one night in 1944 he promises his wife Suzanne never to drink again if they would survive.
Some years later the young Gabriel Fouquet is a guest at the hotel. He has come to visit his daughter at a girl's school. As Albert was in the past he is a alcoholic and dreams of the happy times with his family in Spain.
Albert feels connected to this young man and starts drinking again. After a carousal they end up mess about the whole village.