Joseph isn't particularly happy, even though he's good at hiding it. The day his brother dies, he becomes certain he'll miss out on his life. So that it doesn't slip away from him, one night he gives in to his desire.

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.