Here it all begins: Carla leaves everything behind and goes to Angers with her adoptive parents. Her departure breaks Rose and Bérénice apart (SPOILER)
Nothing will ever be the same again at the Auguste Armand Institute. After weeks of tension, doubt, and accumulated hurt, Carla makes a radical decision that shocks everyone who loves her. Exhausted by conflict, painful memories, and the constant pressure weighing on her, the young woman chooses to leave everything behind. Her sudden and poignant departure marks a heartbreaking turning point in the history of the Institute and leaves behind broken hearts, starting with those of Rose and Bérénice.
It all begins when Carla, weakened by her recent health problems and the many challenges she’s been through, finds herself facing an emotional wall. Since her illness and memory loss, nothing seems to make sense anymore. Classes, projects, friendships, even her relationship with Bérénice… everything is slipping away from her. Her worried adoptive parents come back to see her. Their presence awakens a part of her past that she had buried, a childhood she has never truly healed. For the first time, Carla dares to express how lost she feels at the Institute, like a stranger in a place where everyone else is moving on without her.
Rose, overwhelmed by her daughter’s condition, tries to hold her back. She multiplies tender gestures, words of encouragement, promises of a better tomorrow. But Carla seems elsewhere, trapped in a bubble of weariness and disillusionment. She looks around her and no longer sees the dream of gastronomy, but a gilded cage in which she can no longer breathe. The arguments with Bérénice do not help: the two young women, although so close, no longer understand each other. Love gives way to incomprehension, then to silence.
Bérénice, for her part, refuses to accept the growing distance. She senses something is brewing, a difficult decision beyond her control. Her attempts to speak to Carla are met with a new, almost mechanical coldness. Carla, her eyes moist, repeats that she needs space, that she no longer recognizes herself. Bérénice initially believes it’s a passing crisis. But Carla’s calm and resigned tone chills her blood. The breakup seems inevitable. And when she learns that Carla’s adoptive parents have come to take her back to Angers, she understands that this time, it’s over.
Rose opposes this departure with all her might. She pleads the cause of the Institute, of passion, of the future Carla had promised herself. But the young woman no longer listens. She wants to start over elsewhere, far from the wounds of the past and the gaze of others. It’s not an escape, she says, but a rebirth. Yet, deep down, she knows that she’s fleeing as much as she’s trying to rebuild herself. On the day of her departure, the atmosphere at the Institute is tense. The students whisper in the hallways; some judge her, others pity her. But no one dares to hold her back. Her choice is made.
Bérénice, devastated, arrives at the last minute. Carla’s suitcases are already in the car. The words escape in a torrent of emotion: reproaches, regrets, desperate declarations of love. Carla cries, trembles, but does not change her mind. She thanks Bérénice for everything, for her love, for her support, for the light she has brought into her life, before telling her that she can no longer continue like this. “If I stay, I’ll lose myself,” she breathes, her face ravaged by tears. Bérénice collapses, unable to imagine what comes next without her.
Rose, witnessing this scene, tries to hold her head high, but her heart breaks. She watches Carla walk away, torn between pride and pain. Pride at seeing her take control of her life, pain at losing her once again. This departure awakens old demons within her, wounds from her mother that she thought had healed. She remembers the promises made, the smiles exchanged, the bond she believed indestructible. Now, there remains only a painful silence, an emptiness that nothing seems to be able to fill.
In Angers, Carla finds a more peaceful environment. Her adoptive parents surround her, trying to restore her confidence. But the specter of the Institute still haunts her. Every night, she sees the faces of those she left behind, especially Bérénice’s. Their story, so intense, so true, seems to have ended abruptly, without a true goodbye. Yet, a part of her hopes that one day, their paths will cross again. That the distance will not be the end, but a parenthesis before a possible reconciliation.
Meanwhile, at the Institute, life struggles to get back to normal. Rose throws herself back into work to keep from sinking, while Bérénice isolates herself, unable to move on. The other students respect her grief, but no one knows how to help her. The kitchen, once a place of escape, becomes a constant reminder of what she has lost. Her blank stare speaks volumes: she is no longer the same. She misses Carla every moment.
The teachers, for their part, struggle to understand how such a promising student could have given up everything. Some speak of fragility, others of too much pressure. But the truth is more complex: Carla needed to find herself, to get away from everything that was consuming her. She chose peace over fame. And in this world of demands and competition, it was perhaps the bravest choice she could have made.
The film’s final shot is one of rare intensity: Carla, standing on a bridge in Angers, gazes silently at the river. The wind plays in her hair, and a new light shines in her eyes. Sadness and hope mingle in the same breath. In the distance, a notification appears on her phone: a message from Bérénice. She hesitates, then opens it. A simple word: “Come back.” A shy smile plays on her lips, leaving a hint of doubt about what happens next. Is this really the end… or the beginning of a new chapter?
