Papillons de nuit

On a moonless night, in pouring rain, in the port of a big city, a three-on-one fight. Danny, the "victim" although badly beaten, finds the energy to stand up and slaughter his opponents. Wounded, exhausted, he takes refuge in the only open bar. There, a girl as lost as him, Roberta, ends her night dancing alone to the music of a jukebox. They unwittingly have similar wounds, and live in the same loneliness. Roberta tries to seduce Danny but their part of seduction looks like an arm wrestling where each throws at the other's face their despair and a heavy and confused past. Roberta, that night, doesn't want to come home alone, even though Danny is dangerous. She takes him home, to her strange refuge. A kind of rather harsh tenderness settles between them; the night soothes them, and love consoles them. For a few moments, they dream of a possible happiness, of a "normal" life for two with a wedding and a white dress - They fall asleep at dawn smiling - All their dreams become possible .