As President François Mitterrand (Michel Bouquet) engages in his final battle with cancer, a journalist (Jalil Lespert) endeavours to extract his memoirs and life lessons for a biography. Based on the book by Georges-Marc Benamou, leftist director Robert Guédiguian's semi-fictional look at Mitterrand's career attempts to contrast his socialist dream alternative with global capitalism, to raise pertinent questions about both. A more than passing knowledge of French politics and Mitterrand's personal history (in particular his hotly debated role in the Vichy government during the Nazi occupation) is vital to glean maximum enjoyment from this conversation-based relationship between a writer searching for certainties and a statesman unsure of his legacy to a people, a national identity and to history. Bouquet captures the Mitterrand mannerisms to perfection in what is ultimately a dry study in academic admiration.

A young journalist (Lespert) helps the French President compile his memoirs.