To be closer to his children following his divorce, Laurent Monier, a history and geography teacher in a peaceful provincial high school, accepts a position in a sensitive college in the Paris suburbs. He is assigned the hardest class, the fourth techno, and he finds an apartment in the Cité des Muriers, a particularly difficult district.
A long time ago, a young Russian general chose to sacrifice hundreds of birds to burn Moscow and save his motherland from the troops of Napoleon. For this feat, he was hailed as a hero by the people of Russia but regarded an executioner by the winged creatures. Now fifty years older the aging general leads a drab life. To make matters worse, the descendants of the sacrificed birds keep attacking him. One day however a meets an engaging little dog who soon becomes his faithful companion. Both friends decide to break the curse plaguing the general's life : they start militating for all the caged birds of Russia to be set free.
A young boy who worships all things American comes of age in Orleans, where over 14,000 American GIs were stationed.
