One day a woman named Maude (Catherine Jacob) walks into a swimming pool and sees a young girl splashing about with her friends--in that one instant everything changes. Twelve years ago, someone stole Maude's baby girl, and ever since she has devoted her life to finding her missing daughter. Twelve-year-old Zita, who has a birthmark eerily the same as Maude's lost child, lives with her breezy gypsy mother Joana (Arly Jover) in casual squalor. The girl's vague history, combined with a doctored birth certificate, no baby pictures and an absent father confirm Maude's suspicions that she has finally found her missing child, and she goes after the girl with all the tact of a hostile takeover. Cold and abrasive Maude is not a woman who invites easy sympathy, she drinks too much, smokes constantly, and wears a slash of lipstick as harsh as fresh blood. In marked contrast is Joana, whose easy manner makes her seem the more naturally maternal of the pair. But as Maude begins to infiltrate Zita's life (with expensive presents and promises of wealth and privilege) the struggle between the two mothers intensifies into a pitched battle between nature and nurture. Writer-director Virginie Wagon invests this intense drama with sympathy, compassion and keen intelligence. Ultimately, the one thing that separates the two women is a Solomon-like decision, as heart wrenching as it is necessary.