Mathias Gold (Kevin Kline) is just a down-on-his-luck New Yorker who inherits a Parisian apartment out of his estranged dad. But when he arrives to sell the domicile that is huge, he is shocked to find that a tenant who is not prepared to budge. His apartment is an viager - an ancient French realestate system with complex rules pertaining to its resale value - and also the feisty Englishwoman Mathilde Girard (Maggie Smith), who's lived in the apartment with her daughter Chloé (Kristin Scott Thomas) for a lot of decades, can by contract collect regular premiums out of Mathias before her death.