Mathilde, (Luce Rodriguez), age 9, lives alone with her mother (writer/director/actress Noemie Lvovsky) – she’s her mother’s sole caregiver, constantly and lovingly. Mathilde’s mother suffers from dementia and disorientation and should be institutionalized, but Mathilde accepts her mother’s behaviour as “a fact of life”. Her parents are separated, and despite her psychologist father’s kindly ways it’s only Mathilde that shields her mother from the real world – she’s constantly on edge never knowing what she’ll find when she comes home from school! Some of Mom’s craziest episodes are strangely amusing -- nevertheless, we soon realize that Mathilde, with rare intuition in one so young, understands this stressful situation cannot go on indefinitely...