It's Only the End of the World

Thirty-four year old gay Louis, a playwright with a modicum of success, is returning home for the first time in twelve years. This "exile" from his family is self-imposed in feeling emotionally detached from them as a collective, the only contact he has initiated with them over the twelve years being postcards he sends to either his mother, Martine, or his younger sister, Suzanne, much like he is just away on vacation, those postcards never having more than a few words. In return, he knows nothing about his family's current lives. The reason for the trip is to tell his family that he is dying. Although he has not told them his plans for this trip in advance including how long he will be staying, what he foresees is meeting them at his mother and Suzanne's current abode, where he's never been, then leaving for good, he not wanting to rely on any of them as he also plans to take a taxi to/from the airport instead of asking for a ride. The only thing that he would like to do as a touchstone is to see their old house, despite it being a proverbial dump. Beyond Martine and Suzanne, who doesn't really remember him in any substantive sense as he moved away when she was only a child, the only two others that will be there are his and Suzanne's older brother Antoine, an outwardly brusque man, and Antoine's wife, Catherine, who Louis has never met as he did not attend their wedding. Antoine and Catherine will leave their kids with her parents for the day. Largely by Louis' sheer presence, the day of his arrival with his family takes on dimensions which may affect how he approaches it versus the plan.