On election night in 1981, celebrations spill out onto the street and there is an air of hope and change throughout Paris. But for Elisabeth, her marriage is coming to an end and she will now have to support herself and her two teenage children. She finds work at a late-night radio show and encounters a troubled teenager named Talulah whom she invites into her home.

Nikolaï was abandoned at birth and has been in foster care ever since. Although a family would like to give the sixteen-year-old boy a home, he decides to make one himself. He meets Camille, an intriguing fifteen-year-old wiseacre, and tries to convince her to make a child together. Nikolaï is convinced that he can handle any problem and wants to avoid at all costs that an adult thwarts his plans. Camille and Nikolaï flee together from the home and isolate themselves in the woods. In the heart of this gloomy, mysterious forest, Nikolaï will have to face his first feelings and learn to become a man. Soon, he feels that there are many things he cannot control.