After his wife dies, the 17th century viola da gamba player Monsieur de Sainte Colombe isolates himself and dedicates his life to music and his daughters. One day a young man arrives with a request: he wants to be taught how to play the viola. A romance soon starts with his tutor’s daughter.

Long before Whiplash, Corneau explored a similar story of the musician Marin Marais and his tutelage by the cantankerous Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe. The two are movingly played by the late Guillaume Depardieu and his father Gérard, who in tandem articulate a brilliant soul in this ode to creation.