The district of Le Mirail, "an avant-garde, humanist operation par excellence", was an urbanist dream. But the utopia couldn't keep up with the shifting realities of the city and changes in French society. Luc Delahaye does more than analyze the failure, he uses his photographer's tools to measure the space between the ideal of an era and the current reality. He goes from door to door visiting people's homes and examining their private lifescapes, then turns to the outside in search of what remains of the dream. The movement is multiplied by the presence of archival images and transcriptions of interviews conducted with the inhabitants and the architect. The complex reality is rendered with concern for clarity and an affection for the poetry of small things. Le Mirail appears as an exemplary observatory or metaphor of our society.