Suzanne, a 15-year-old Parisian girl, lives with her volatile, abusive family: her furrier parents and older brother Robert, a writer.

Her mother is desperately unhappy and grows increasingly frustrated with Suzanne's skimpy clothes, her letters from boys, and her attitude at home.

Miserable, Suzanne asks Robert to send her to boarding school, saying she can no longer tolerate home life and has contemplated suicide.

[2] In Les Filles du faubourg, the characters are Polish Jews, but Pialat minimized the family's heritage to brief references.

[3] Due to the small budget, Pialat aborted the period drama element, moving the setting from the 1960s to the present but keeping some of the art design and avoiding mentions of politics or contraception.

Bonnaire herself had introduced Stevens to Pialat, having met him shortly before during a brief vacation in England, and the two actors then became engaged (their relationship lasted two years).

[6] Time Out listed it 38th in its 100 Best French Films, citing a "moving" depiction of the father-daughter relationship and "The message may be that happiness is as rare as a sunny day, and sorrow is forever".