Claude Verneuil, a
Gaullist notary, and his wife Marie, a
Catholic bourgeois from
Chinon, are parents of four daughters: Isabelle, Odile, Ségolène, and Laure. The three eldest are already married to men, each one of a different religion and a different ethnic origin: Isabelle married Rashid Ben Assem, an
Algerian
Muslim lawyer, Odile married David Benichou, a
Sephardi Jew entrepreneur, and Ségolène married Chao Ling, a
Han Chinese atheistic banker. The Verneuils pretend to accept their sons-in-law but have had a hard time hiding their discomfort at accepting people into the family from outside the community. A family meeting is spoiled because of the awkwardness and
clichés about race and religion, expressed as much by the father as by the sons-in-law, who even exchange insulting views to and about each other. The Verneuils, in despair, put all their hope in their youngest daughter Laure, that she will bring home a Catholic partner, going so far as to arrange an "accidental" meeting with Xavier, a young Catholic man who works in finance. However, Laure reveals that she had already chosen a partner named "Charles", a Catholic, and wishes to marry him. Laure's parents are overjoyed and readily forgive his occupation as a comedian and actor. On the first meeting, however, they are shocked when they discover that the man to whom their daughter is engaged is a black
West African from the
Ivory Coast. Claude begins to sink into depression and spends his time cutting down trees and fishing. Meanwhile, the three sons-in-law get together and plan to stop Laure's marriage out of fear that their barely stable friendship dynamics will be threatened by a fourth member. When the Verneuils meet with the Kofis, Marie and Charles' mother Madeleine get along well, but Claude finds that Charles' father André is an intolerant, tough, stingy military man and extremely resentful of the former white colonisation and
white nationalism in Africa. Both the groom's and bride's party come head to head and the fathers' disapproval and
racist views heat up the situation. On the day before the wedding, André and Claude go fishing and unexpectedly find common ground in their dislikes, as both are Gaullists (
Charles de Gaulle), and develop a friendship. After catching a large
pike, the two go to a restaurant, get drunk with wine and are arrested at a
pâtisserie after making racist comments. Laure is notably upset at this and boards a train, deciding to abandon the marriage; André and Claude catch the train and persuade Laure to marry Charles. Laure agrees and the film ends with a happy marriage and a night of the family dancing
coupé-décalé. == Cast ==