Paul s'en va takes place in an academy for dramatic arts and the protagonists are seventeen student - actors from the school, which is what they are in real life. The film is divided into four chapters: 1. The Disappearance: A professor at the school, a former militant from the sixties and seventies, has suddenly disappeared. Some students are worried, others are indifferent, a few are delighted. 2. The Tracks: Before leaving, he left his students a series of playing cards with texts to contemplate or small tasks to accomplish. 3. The World: One of the tasks is to write a sketch inspired by Alfred Jarry's Père Ubu. The students decide to set it in the White House in Washington, D.C. 4. The Given Word: During their lives and in their future work, these young actors will be the conveyors of the word: that of past and present authors. They will thus take it up and pass it on to others.