France in the 1980s: 13-year-old Alpha lives alone with her mother, a doctor, in Le Havre. When a rumor spreads that she has contracted a mysterious disease, her everyday life takes a threatening turn. The virus, which gradually transforms people into marble statues, becomes an allegorical reflection of the AIDS epidemic and reveals the disintegration of a family.

Alpha is a feverish, raw, and at the same time tender film about exclusion, paranoia, and the fear of not being able to save loved ones.