The film is partly based on director Kurys's experiences and opens with a title card that states; "For my sister—who still hasn't given me back my orange sweater."

In September 1963, 13-year-old Anne Weber and her 15-year-old sister Frédérique are spending the summer holiday with their newly divorced father on the coast.

Meanwhile, Frédérique begins to lose interest in Marc as she becomes more politically active around the issue of the Algerian War and her Jewish identity.

Frédérique befriends the outspoken Pascale, a classmate who gives a horrific account to her class of a peaceful protest against far-right extremists that was violently broken up by French police.

'"[3] Kurys drew on her own experiences as a young adolescent, setting the film at the same lycée she attended and partly basing the characters on her real-life sister and herself.

Klarwein, who had no previous acting experience, recalled the most challenging scenes for her to film were, "First, the one where I have my period, because I didn't have it in reality and because it touched on the intimate.

[6] Peppermint Soda was released in France on 14 December 1977, where it was a box office success, earning 70,000 admissions in its opening week[1] and became an enduring classic.

Janet Maslin of The New York Times called it an "expert, utterly charming movie" that is "sweet and buoyant in its innocence.

[9] Writing of the restored version, Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Peppermint Soda is, like its summer-cooling namesake, a concoction that signifies childhood, a refreshment likely to spark a memory.

Kurys' fondness for that time of fumbling and outgrowing is as fresh today as it was when it heralded a perceptive new filmmaking talent, especially because underneath these affectionately extracted remembrances is an unshakeable sisterly bond — of admiration, exasperation and watchfulness — that gives the story of Anne and Frédérique a deeper hold.