A key point of the plot of the movie happened in real life: a request was sent to the French Minister of Education to propose a Skirt Day.

[2] Sonia Bergerac (Adjani), who favours wearing a skirt, teaches French literature at a middle school in a poor immigrant-dominated neighborhood.

She increasingly resents the daily burden of racist and sexist abuse from her violent unmotivated students, even more so since the departure of her husband.

While school, police and political authorities try to figure out what is going on and how to react, Sonia forces the students to see things her way and ultimately shows them the contradictions in their own lives.

The police then get her father to speak to her and, when he switches to Arabic from French, the students realise that, like many of them, Sonia is also of North African origin.