제2차 세계대전 당시인 1940년, 프랑스 덩케르크 지역에서 진행된 연합군 구출 작전. 영화는 세개의 시공간을 동시에 진행시킨다. 도버 해협을 건너려는 영국군을 중심으로 한 잔교에서의 일주일, 민간 선박들의 자발적 참전과 차출이 이어지는 바다에서의 하루, 적기를 겨냥한 스피트파이어기 전투사가 있는 하늘에서의 한 시간. 전쟁의 전방위성, 공포의 상시성과 그 압도, 개별 공간을 떠난 공포의 유사성, 그 속의 다급함이 혼재되어 있는 가운데 전쟁과 죽음에의 공포와 생존을 향한 인간적 열망을 그린다.
Four out-of-shape car mechanics decide to participate in the Rotterdam marathon. If they reach the finish in time, they will be able to pay off their debt — if they don't, they will lose their garage.
Kees (Ramsey Nasr) is a gently eccentric loner who takes his imaginary dog for a walk each evening and likes to listen in on his neighbors' conversations. He is lonely. He has no real family, as his father is dead and his mother is institutionalized. However, when the chronically unemployed Kees gets a job at a bank, many of his co-workers don't know what to make of him, and scarcely anyone talks to him -- until the day someone comments on a photo in his wallet. Though he doesn't actually know the woman in the picture, Kees tells them the woman in the photo is his girlfriend and starts spinning tales about their "relationship." Before long, Kees has invented an entire alternate personality and is stealing photos from others to fit the new "friends" and "family" he's created.
After losing sight of each other for 25 years, the paths of three childhood friends cross paths. It concerns successful conductor Victor Slingeland, successful writer Sander Vastenhout and general practitioner Bert Duprez. Slingeland enjoys a reputation as a womanizer. This intrigues Vastenhout who, as is often the case with authors, is without inspiration. Vastenhout sees the unraveling of Slingeland's complex personality as possible new material for a novel. With the help of Dr. Duprez, Vastenhout tries to find out about Slingeland's secret by imitating his behavior and thus challenging him.
