Her father has left and her mother works both as a barmaid and prostitute and they live in a noisy roadside apartment.

We meet her again at age 18, living with her mother in a suburb of Paris and working at a hair salon near St. Lazare train station.

At night mother and daughter watch TV or Apple reads romance novels and magazines.

Apple is left eating an ice cream at a tea shop when Aimery de Béligny shows up.

Her docile sincerity charms him at first; they live together in his studio in Paris where she expresses her devotion through continuous housework.