At 16, Gabriel takes over the camera of his deceased older brother and films his daily life with his little sister who is growing up, his mother who is sinking into madness and a boy from his neighborhood. An unexpected encounter will lead Gabriel to film a first love.

Tom, 20 and his friend Max, have opposing views on how to best approach a girl. At the gym, they come across Lucie. And so the match begins…

The twenties somewhere in France. Summertime. Lisa, sixteen, avoid the bourgeois family boredom. At the bottom of a remote lake, she reveals herself.

Belleville. A working-class Parisian neighborhood. Nadia teaches french to Chinese prostitutes in an association. Committed to her work, she gets close to one of her students, Mei, who is saving money to make his son travel to France.

"The choice of each period is intimate, as each period awakens a particular emotion in me. This emotion reflects what is around me, not everyone is able to recognise it -- that is the risk I take. I think that this is good enough reason to make a film that will make visible small yet revealing things in differeent ways. I believe in tropisms and that is what interests me in this film." -- Marie Vermillard [taken from London Film Festival 2006 catalogue]

Philippe, a French-American writer living in Manhattan, decides to take on ten relationship-challenged men to help them learn the art of seduction.

Max and Minou are having a relationship crisis: she's crying, he's getting annoyed. Their car has been vandalised but this is not why she's crying. While looking for a car repairer on a small industrial estate, they come across some people who are even more troubled than they are. The world seems about to erupt.

Caught red-handed: Yann, Lena and Céline get a harsh punishment for stealing. The three have to spend four months in prison. They have to stay away from Paris for the next two years. Yann's aunt gives them shelter. Together, the trio moves into a house in the country. Now all anyone needs is a job. Céline is prickly: "I've enjoyed some jobs. But never for more than two days." Yann soon loses his optimism, too...