This is an exploration of the inner life of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. The activity focuses on memory - collecting, classifying, cataloguing, conserving, transporting, reproducing, storing, lending and reading. Sacks of magazines, newspapers, books and catalogues are shown, as well as how a book makes its way into the huge archive. And a Dick Tracy comic. The film features stretched out camera takes, the music of Maurice Jarre (like in a crime thriller), and a commentary that is at the same time lyrical and uneasy with regard to the idea of an all-encompassing memory of humankind.