ON THE CEILING tells the story of a young man who wears a chair upside down on his head. He falls in love with a young woman named Meline, and soon he and his friends move in with her and her family. They are disappointed by the life they find at Meline's, however, and in search of something better they make the collective decision to move to the ceiling of her house, where they expect to find a more orderly, more rational, and less encumbered existence.