Mathilda or "Matty", ' is a bitter, 41-year-old, postal worker in Gent, Belgium. She finds herself drifting through life waiting for her husband Werner ' to decide if he wants to leave his current 22-year-old lover Gail, and return to Matty and their three kids. One day after shopping at the supermarket, Matty backs into a yellow highway tractor in the parking lot. The owner of the truck is 29-year-old Johnny . They have an explosive argument over whose fault it is. Johnny rips into Matty and tries to put her in her place but Matty gets the best of him and earns his respect. The police show up and they file a report. Johnny memorizes Matty's number from the police report and pursues her. He calls several times and one day shows up at her apartment offering to fix the trunk of her car. At first, she acts as though she's annoyed, but she secretly feels amused. After he fixes her car, she invites him to join her family for dinner. They have a good time and after, he proposes they go out for a drink. Unwillingly, Matty accepts assuming it will be harmless. However, during the date, he relentlessly tries to persuade her to spend the night with him. She eventually gives in. The night they share together rejuvenates her. When Werner learns about Matty's affair with Johnny, he asks a friend at the police station to run a background check. They find out that he did time for an incident where he brutally attacked his wife and put her in the hospital for two weeks. One night at dinner, Matty's teenage daughter Vera asks Johnny if the charges were true. He shamefacedly says yes. Vera leaves the table disgusted and Matty tries to break things off with Johnny but he explains he had had too much to drink that night and after his ex-wife admitted she had been having an affair for 3 months, he went into a rage. Matty tries but she can't resist his charm and things continue as though nothing happened. Jealous that he might lose Matty, Werner tries to get her back. The three end up having dinner together. Johnny and Werner have an argument at the table and both leave while Matty hides out in the laundry room. She realizes that Werner is the one making her unhappy, and makes the decision to try having a relationship with Johnny. While they are out celebrating her decision, Johnny and Matty run into Johnny's yuppie ex-wife and her lawyer lover. At this point, Johnny has had a few too many drinks and is sloshed. All four end up in a heated argument and Johnny ends up throwing a beer keg at the lawyer's car and shattering the windshield. Matty is disgusted at Johnny's lack of restraint and leaves. She tries to rekindle her romance with Werner but there's no passion. A while later, Vera invites Matty to the karaoke bar, where they run into Johnny. He tries to serenade her but she is again disgusted and leaves but later goes back to try to find him before he departs for Italy.
