Juliette Binoche is "Marianne", a woman looking for work after her marriage has failed and she is left pretty much broke. The employment agency recommends she becomes something along the lines of a "domestic apparatus operator" (i.e. a minimum wage cleaner). Talk about back-breaking work? Anyway, gradually she finds her feet and falls in with other, similarly situated, folks - notably the affable "Cèdric" (Didier Pupin) with whom she bonds a little (platonically), and "Chrystèle" (a strong performance from Hélène Lambert). It is the latter who manages to get "Marianne" a job cleaning the ferry...