Based on 138 interviews with elderly persons living at home, aged 60 to 80, the book presents a sociological analysis of the ageing process. These persons talk about sources of joy or stress and anxiety for them. They describe their everyday life made up of constant negotiation and invention of their material and psychological living conditions. Day after day they invent, organise and reorganise these conditions especially when periods of dependancy happen. The book also includes an analysis of the adversity of representations, according to social classes, as regards retirement, former professional activities, management of everyday space and time conditions, decline, illness and death.