Forster, a cynical and anti-social art-critic has a room in Staircase C of an ordinary apartment block. He tolerates but does not particularly enjoy the company of his neighbours, who include an unemployed scrounger Bruno, a gay costume designer Claude, and a failed writer Virgile who is constantly falling in and out with his girlfriend Béatrice. Forster’s jaded outlook on life is suddenly changed when one of his neighbours commits suicide...