A group of young boys develops a crush on a girl, leading to jealousy toward her boyfriend. They scheme to disrupt their relationship, and when the boyfriend catches one of them spying, he punishes him harshly. In retaliation, the boys attempt to make the girl doubt her boyfriend's love.

For young Parisian boy Antoine Doinel, life is one difficult situation after another. Surrounded by inconsiderate adults, including his neglectful parents, Antoine spends his days with his best friend, Rene, trying to plan for a better life. When one of their schemes goes awry, Antoine ends up in trouble with the law, leading to even more conflicts with unsympathetic authority figures.

Nicolette, François, Céline, Frédéric, and the oldest Edouard, meet, fall in love, break up or go away, are swept up in a whirlwind that sometimes sees youth take the full brunt of the disillusionment that adulthood has in store for them. Some adolescents have no other solution than suicide or flight, when they are confronted with events that contradict the "promises of dawn" that are transmitted to them and that are betrayed by those who made them, with the greatest contempt. - Unifrance

Nicolette, François, Céline, Frédéric, and the oldest Edouard, meet, fall in love, break up or go away, are swept up in a whirlwind that sometimes sees youth take the full brunt of the disillusionment that adulthood has in store for them. Some adolescents have no other solution than suicide or flight, when they are confronted with events that contradict the "promises of dawn" that are transmitted to them and that are betrayed by those who made them, with the greatest contempt. - Unifrance