Victor is a fourteen year-old boy growing up in a bourgeois Catholic family in 1950s Paris. His father dotes on the daughter from his late first wife, while for his young son Victor and his mother, he has nothing but contempt. Discovering the mysteries of women is what fills Victor's dreams. The girl across the street whose window he monitors at night, the beautiful downstairs neighbor who ignores him, the voluptuous black caretaker of a nearby building, the lonely woman in the hotel where the family vacations, and many others, all fill his dreams. Victor's jealous and over-protective mother meanwhile watches over her son with the help of the priest, who repeats Victor’s every confession to his mother. Every step Victor takes toward adulthood, whether it is falling in love, losing his virginity, or simply forging a friendship, implies a game of deception with these last two.

Victor's only ally is a retired teacher who gives him the support he needs, helps him understand his mother's behavior and gives him the weapons and confidence to fight back and survive.

This is the at times tender, at times violent, portrait of one boy’s sexual awakening and breaking away is reminiscent of This Boy’s Life.