In 1760, Guillaume Le Gentil, the astronomer of King Louis XV, sets sail to the shores of India to observe a rare astronomical event — the transit of Venus, through which he hopes to calculate the distance from the Earth to the Sun. The whims of fate turned what was usually a simple and brief journey into an incredible adventure lasting eleven years. 250 years later, Parisian real estate agent Xavier Lemercier finds in an apartment he sold a box left unclaimed by previous owners, in which he discovers a telescope that belonged to Le Gentil. While looking from his balcony at the surrounding houses, in the window of one apartment he sees a beautiful stranger and a zebra beside her. The next day, this woman walks through the door of Xavier's office, and his life changes forever.