Pierre, a retired French miner, who lives surrounded by birds and various domestic pets, describes how his life has been blighted by supernatural events. References made to ghosts parallel sequences showing industrial remains that have been preserved as memorials in the northern French landscape, thus representing traces of a recent but nonetheless bygone age.  The title of the film relates both to cinematic technique and poltergeist activity. Images of St Barbara, the patron saint of miners, refer to the religious and superstitious beliefs of men employed in dangerous conditions. The presence of caged birds recalls the use of canaries as warning systems in mines and corresponds to the fact that, wherever he goes, Pierre cannot escape forces (whether real or imaginary, psychological or socio-economic) that are not bound by geographical and physical constraints.