After learning he has a newborn son a small-time thief attempts to go straight
- but not until his amorality is pushed to its breaking point
- in this social-problem drama from writer-directors Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne Eighteen-year-old Sonia (Deborah Francois) has just given birth to a baby boy The baby's father Bruno (Jeremie Renier) is panhandling in the street when Sonia tracks him down & he shows little interest in fathering the child or even providing a roof over the heads of the fledgling family As the new & inexperienced mother navigates the bleak industrial landscape of the small Belgian town they live in Bruno falls in with a clandestine group that buys & sells healthy children on the black market He tragically learns that one avaricious decision made in an instant can affect the lives of everyone in his orbit