The Life Before Us recap

Momo, a Muslim boy of North African descent, lives in Belleville with Madame Rosa, an elderly Jewish survivor of Auschwitz who cares for the children of prostitutes. As Rosa's body and memory fail, Momo seeks help from neighbors including Monsieur Hamil, Doctor Katz, and Madame Lola, while fearing officials will take Rosa to a hospital. He learns that she has concealed both his real age and the violent history of his parents. He also meets Nadine and Ramon, who offer the possibility of another home. When Rosa can no longer climb or care for herself, Momo takes her to the cellar refuge she prepared against another persecution. She dies there, and he remains beside her body for weeks, concealing her death until the smell brings discovery. Momo then goes to live with Nadine and Ramon, carrying forward the lesson that his bond with Rosa was a family created by care rather than blood.

Momo lives in a sixth-floor Belleville apartment run by Madame Rosa, a former prostitute who is paid to raise the children of women still working in the trade. He does not know his exact age or much about his parents. Rosa is Jewish and survived Auschwitz; Momo is Muslim, and she has tried to preserve his religion while raising him. The apartment is crowded, poor, and held together by irregular payments and help from neighbors. Momo notices Rosa's worsening breathlessness, pain, and confusion and begins to fear losing the only parent he knows. He seeks companionship with Monsieur Hamil, an elderly Muslim carpet seller, and asks difficult questions about whether a person can live without being loved.

Madame Rosa's declining health makes the stairs and daily care of the children increasingly difficult. Doctor Katz can offer limited treatment, but Momo distrusts medical and welfare authorities because hospitalization would take Rosa away. Madame Lola, a transgender Senegalese woman and former boxer, becomes a generous source of food, money, and practical support. Momo wanders Belleville, invents stories, and sometimes acts out to make himself visible to adults, but repeatedly returns to protect Rosa. He also learns about the cellar room where she sometimes retreats. Stocked with a chair, candles, and reminders of her faith, it is her private shelter against the terror that another roundup might come.

As Rosa's memory becomes less reliable, Momo shoulders more of the household's burdens and watches the community rally around her. Monsieur Hamil's own failing memory shows Momo another version of old age. During his walks, Momo follows a woman named Nadine and eventually meets her. She is a film editor and treats him kindly, allowing him to visit and observe her work. Nadine and her husband Ramon begin to offer a connection outside the apartment, though Momo remains emotionally bound to Rosa and wary of being claimed or examined. His search for origins matters less to him than the immediate question of how to keep Rosa from being removed against her will.

A man named Youssef Kadir arrives and identifies himself as Momo's father. His appearance forces Madame Rosa to reveal that Momo is older than he has been told and that his mother was a prostitute whom Kadir killed during a mental breakdown. Rosa has hidden the boy's age in order to keep him with her longer. She protects Momo during the confrontation by confusing his identity with that of another child, and the shock of the encounter proves fatal to Kadir. The disclosures leave Momo with a clearer but painful account of his birth family. They also confirm that Rosa's deceptions, however damaging, arose from possessive love and fear of losing him.

Rosa deteriorates rapidly, drifting between the present and memories of persecution. Officials and neighbors recognize that she needs institutional care, but she has made Momo understand that she does not want to die in a hospital or be kept alive without awareness. Momo helps her down to the cellar refuge, telling others that she has left. He remains with her as she dies and continues sitting beside the body, applying perfume and makeup in an effort to preserve both her dignity and the fiction that they are still together. After weeks, the odor leads others to discover them. Momo is taken from the cellar and goes to Nadine and Ramon, whose family can give him a home. Rosa is gone, but Momo's final act expresses the loyalty between two people whose different religions, ages, and origins never prevented them from becoming family.

Madame Rosa's physical and mental decline reaches the point at which others want her hospitalized, something she has long feared. Momo instead helps her descend to the cellar room she prepared as a refuge from persecution. She dies there with him beside her. Unable to accept the separation and determined to protect her from institutions even after death, Momo stays with her body, disguising the odor with perfume and cosmetics while telling people she has gone away. The truth is discovered only after neighbors notice the smell. Momo is finally removed from the cellar and taken into the care of Nadine and Ramon, who have offered him a home. His devotion has not saved Rosa's life, but it has allowed him to honor her wish not to end it in a hospital and makes clear that love, rather than legal or biological ties, formed their family.