While their mother travels through North Africa with a theater production and their father engages in obscure businesses in South America, Patoche and his little brother are placed in the care of four eccentric women. Their new home, an ivy-covered house near Paris, remains an incomprehensible world for the two boys, and the four women present an unsolvable puzzle: there’s Helene, the former circus acrobat, Annie and her stubborn mother Mathilde. And finally, there’s Snow White, the young girl who mysteriously disappears one day without a trace. Left to their own devices, Patoche and his brother explore the unusual Maison Guillotin, sneak into the nearby castle at night, and take trips to Paris. Until the arrival of three mysterious men changes their fate once again...