Valentine Dussaut studies at University of Geneva and works as a part-time model. She regularly attends ballet classes. She calls her possessive boyfriend in London and plans to meet him. During her part-time job as a model, she poses for a chewing-gum campaign and the photo selected is one of her looking very sad. While walking back home, Auguste, a student neighbour of Valentine's, drops his textbooks and one book falls open at a particular chapter of the Criminal Code, which he notes. Driving back to her apartment, Valentine is distracted and accidentally hits a German Shepherd dog. She tracks down the owner, a retired judge, Joseph Kern, who seems unconcerned. Valentine takes the dog, Rita, to a veterinarian, where she learns that the dog is pregnant. She overcomes the sexual advances made by the ad company's photographer. Later, money is delivered to her apartment from an unnamed sender.