In 1993 Paris, a recently retired pioneering craniofacial surgeon is visited by the parents of a nine-year-old boy with a congenital condition requiring a major foundational operation that would make future necessary surgeries possible. Owing to his old age and the many risks involved with the potentially life-threatening operation he invented, the former surgeon has reservations about accepting the heartfelt request. A conversation develops with his successor, who pleads with his mentor to come out of retirement for this exceptionally complex case. The venerable doctor wants more than anything to help the boy as he has helped countless other patients during his remarkable fifty-year career, but aren't the boy's parents simply too late?