 We meet Marion and Gilles on the day they sign their divorce papers. And we move backwards in time. The film is composed of 5 sequences featuring 2 people, hence the title. The backwards time-line shows how their marriage fell apart, and creates nostalgia as we discover the happiness of the early days. The cinematography evolves from cold and static to warm and moving, as the actors actually seem to grow younger. Overall it is a rather dark and pitiless movie, one of its disturbing qualities being that it dares to feature a male protagonist who is an absolute jerk.