Forty-something Francois Pignon, who has worked for years as an accountant for the same contraceptive manufacturer, becomes suicidal when he learns that his company is downsizing and he is about to lose his job. Work means everything to this gloomy and boring little man since both his ex-wife, who left him after two years of marriage, and their 16-year-old son avoid him. But things are about to change when Pignon's psychologist neighbor persuades him that he can save his job by coming out to his employers as a gay man -- even though he isn't.