Little bald Léon loves his grandfather. He loves the old man's bushy black beard, which seems endowed with magic powers. It even turns caterpillars into butterflies. But Léon's grandmother wants to cut off the unkempt beard and regain the distinguished-looking man she married, who wore just a tidy moustache. When the old man's asleep, grandmother prowls, scissors in hand, but Léon's keeping a watchful eye on her. As long as grandpa lives, the beard will stay!

But one day, grandpa doesn't wake up. Well, it's natural for grandfathers to die before their grandchildren. Léon is sad, especially as his grandmother is at last able to shave off that pesky beard. Goodbye hair! Adieu butterflies! Adieu lovely beard! Now the old man's face looks like a mown field.

To soften his pain, Léon decides to bury the beard. He digs a hole in the middle of the forest and buries the precious secret. The rising sun next morning reveals that a beard forest has sprung up, thick and black like grandpa's.

And from now on, Léon's round head sports a sort of thick black brush. A souvenir of the old days, when he played and laughed with his grandfather. A film without words.