This film is a study of a boy growing up in France. Daniel lives with his grandmother in Pessac outside the city of Bordeaux, sharing a naïve and happy childhood with his friends. After one year of secondary school, Daniel has to go to the city of Narbonne to live with his mother. She is a seamstress living in a small apartment with her lover José, a married Spanish farm worker. Daniel would like to continue school. However, his mother cannot afford it and sends him instead to work as an apprentice in a moped repair shop. Daniel learns about girls from observing others in the cinema, on the street, and advice from other boys in town. When he visits his grandmother next year, he returns as a much more mature boy than his old friends.