"From the moment you are born you start to die." So says Pierre Anthon when he decides there is no meaning to life, leaves the classroom, climbs a plum tree and stays there. His friends and classmates cannot get him to come down - not even by pelting him with rocks. To prove to him that there is a meaning to life, they set out to build a heap of meaning in an abandoned sawmill. But it soon becomes obvious that each person cannot give up what is most meaningful and events begin to spiral out of control...