Sylvie, a nearly sixty-year-old woman, has fallen in love with Michel, a thug she marries in prison. The couple dream of starting again with a clean slate by opening a flower shop. But Sylvie’s son Abel, convinced that Michel will fall into a life of crime, disapproves of this relationship.

After writing for Cahiers du cinéma, a young Jean-Luc Godard decides making films is the best film criticism. He convinces producer Georges de Beauregard to fund a low-budget feature, and creates a treatment with fellow New Wave filmmaker François Truffaut about a gangster couple. The result? Breathless, one of the first features of the Nouvelle Vague era of French cinema.

After an abortion which has left her emotionally shaken, Rosalie returns to the village where she was born. She rediscovers her grandmother's house and garden abandoned, the vigour of her best friends, her first love, and encounters the latter's new girlfriend. She tries to stay the course without creating any waves.