Long after his father's death, the film maker decides to find out more about a man he barely knew. In police files, stories from his old friends, forgotten documents and photos discovered in his apartment, his father emerges as a charmer with a troubled past. From an ambiguous role during the Occupation to a liaison with the Parisian benefactor Marie-Laure de Noailles, an idyll with Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, and dealings with the secret service the material is fascinating. But it is the complicated story of the father-son relationship that unfolds at the centre of the film.