During the turbulent days of World War II, young Jonathan Noel endured the heartache of losing his parents, who were taken away and never returned. Entrusted to the care of strangers, they dictated the course of his life, sending him off to fight in Indochina and arranging a union with a pregnant girl who would eventually leave him. This series of betrayals forged a belief within Jonathan: reliance on others was folly, and solitude his only refuge. In 1954, he distanced himself from his origins, moving to Paris to assume the role of a bank guard. Here, he sought solace in isolation, steering clear of any human interactions that might disrupt his well-ordered life. His Spartan room became a fortress, shielding him from life's unpredictable upheavals.

However, a chance encounter with a pigeon in the hallway shattered his carefully constructed tranquility. Trying to sneak unnoticed to the restroom, he found his day unraveling into chaos. The incident left him plagued by anxiety, immobilized by fear, drenched in sweat, and consumed by self-reproach during his shift.

That night, as he lay in an unfamiliar bed, a thunderclap jolted him awake, leaving him disoriented. In a haze, he mistook the room for the cellar of his childhood home and once more felt the weight of absolute solitude. The rhythmic patter of rain eventually grounded him, granting him the courage to return to his own space. He discovered the hallway devoid of the pigeon, now devoid of its unsettling remnants.

The narrative's periphery is populated by two minor figures: the meticulous seamstress Madame Topell and the inquisitive concierge Madame Rocard, the latter being the sole individual to pierce Jonathan Noel's veil of anonymity.