The French Ministry of the Future announces that it has computer-selected a so-called "average" French couple, Jean-Michel and Claudine (Andre Dussolier and Anemone), and will use what it finds out from them to determine how to manage housing and other government programs in the future. Overnight, they become famous and are subjected to endless questions by government functionaries. Commercial forces interested in using them for marketing research also begin to hound them. The couple is kidnapped just as they begin to rebel against their exploitation. This gives the government just the excuse it needs to drop the whole program, which had begun to develop in some awkward directions.