Adolescent French suburban lower-middle-class nerd Marc Morel was happy being the teacher's pet and school representative in a Latin competition. Until he meets and instantly falls in love with fatherless semi-illiterate shop clerk and ditto-daughter Martine Pérez. As his overbearing father Robert feared, stripling hormones run wild at the expense of academic future-building, but paternal authority is overruled by 'young love', which even yields peer-acceptance. Cool big brother Christian, a photographer, tries a more understanding approach, but even that runs into trouble.