Ferdinand Bauer Michel Piccoli lives with his wife Juliette Laurentine Milebo on a hillside farm, where they raise their adoptive son (really his grandson), Tom Kevin Hervé. The couple agree to look after Lili Lamotte Coline Girerd, their other granddaughter, while Lili’s parents travel by car and trailer to Africa to bring back crocodiles for their zoo. The plan is simple and steady, a quiet rhythm of farm life that hides a storm brewing beyond the horizon.
On the property there’s a small pond whose frogs sense a looming catastrophe. Their calculations suggest the Earth will be flooded for forty days and forty nights. Reluctant at first to share the warning, the frogs decide to tell Tom and Lili so they can alert others. The news lands with a jolt, but the warning comes far too late to change what is coming.
When the flood hits, it seems to erase life from the planet. The zoo animals scramble to the barn, which sits atop a hill as the foundations are torn away, and they ride the rising waters on a giant tractor tire. Ferdinand, a seasoned sailor in his own right, assumes the role of captain. The truth everyone agrees on is stark: survival hinges on unity. Amid the chaos, Ferdinand rallies everyone to cooperate, turning a collapsing barn into a precarious floating refuge.
As the waters smooth, hunger asserts itself. Ferdinand has stockpiled 28 tons of potatoes, which he transforms into an endless supply of French fries. The carnivores grumble—meat is scarce in their floating world—but Ferdinand persuades them to endure for the greater good. It’s a tenuous peace, held together by a shared resolve and a captain’s command, even as tensions simmer below the surface.
Into this fragile utopia drift the tortoise La tortue Anouk Grinberg, wounded from a crocodile attack and missing a leg. Lili befriends the vulnerable creature, while Tom notices a growing distance between Lili and the tortoise, a rift that will soon reveal darker motives. The fox Le renard Bernard Bouillon and the lion Le lion Jacques Higelin clash over how to feed themselves, with a nagging voice urging revolt against the potato-centric rationing. Yet the lion’s prudence wins out, and they ultimately respect the captain’s law, even as hunger gnaws at them.
Days pass, and the animals’ hunger intensifies. The carnivores’ patience wears thin and they lash out at a sheep, prompting Ferdinand to banish them to a floating bathtub behind the barn. In parallel, Ferdinand and Tom reminisce about Tom’s father, who had been the machinist on Ferdinand’s boat and was resourceful with machines. With improvised ingenuity, Ferdinand tends to the vessel’s propulsion—he “motorizes” the barn by adapting an old tractor engine to act as oars along the sides of their floating ark.
The tortoise regales Lili with a tale of resilience: she once saved her life and three of her eggs, at the cost of losing a limb. She persuades Lili that her parents died long ago, a story that shapes Lili’s sense of belonging and family. Ferdinand and Juliette choose to adopt Lili, giving her a place in the makeshift family aboard the floating refuge.
That night, the tortoise’s schemes come into sharper focus. The carnivores are warned that the tortoise is secretly aligned with the crocodiles to feed the entire barn to them, and she must sever her ties with the captain to keep her plan hidden. The carnivores hesitate, but many are convinced to abandon the humans to the tortoise’s calculated attack. Yet one brave cat Patrick Eveno and a few others choose to help the children, unlocking a spark of hope amid the mounting despair.
The tortoise sounds the signal as crocodiles close in. The children flee by climbing the giraffe’s neck, but the majority of the carnivores hurry after them. The tortoise claims that the eggs tucked under her carapace belong to crocodiles, using the ruse to justify the coming onslaught. The cat frees the children, and they manage to start the tractor engine, racing away from the pursuing predators. Ferdinand awakens in time to steer the floating barn away from danger, but the fight is far from over.
As the danger escalates, the tortoise is exposed. The eggs hatch into crocodiles, and the barn becomes a battleground. Ferdinand confronts the tortoise, exposing the ruse and preventing a total massacre. The angry animals threaten to throw the tortoise to the crocodiles, but Ferdinand arrives at the last moment to restore order. The crocodiles retreat, their duped ally left exposed and carapace-less.
After days of peril, life aboard the barn begins to settle. The kittens are born, a small sign of continuing life in this precarious world. Even the elephants—L’éléphant and his companion—appear at the doorway to celebrate the newborns and the resilience of their makeshift family. As the floodwaters finally recede, the barn reaches drier ground, and a mist lifts to reveal other boats perched on distant mountains where survivors gather, sharing a fragile hope for a new world.
Then a bright beacon cuts through the quiet—the arrival of a large car driven by Lili’s parents. Their news lands with relief and astonishment: the flood did not occur in Africa, a revelation that reshapes the future for everyone aboard the floating ark. In the aftermath, the survivors contemplate a return to land, the bonds formed on the water hardened into a lasting family, and the knowledge that life, no matter how improbable, endures when people and animals choose to stand together.
