[3] Set in the French countryside after the end of World War II, it tells the story of a 15-year-old girl abandoned by her parents, who is looking for love and independence but succumbs to stealing and sleeping with men.

Janine lives with her uncle and aunt, who have little sympathy for her as her mother left her to go with a lover to Italy and she never knew her father.

Tired after a long day's work, in the cinema she falls asleep on the shoulder of Michel, a married man in his forties keen on poetry and music.

He wants money to buy a motor bike for racing, and Janine supplies it by robbing her employers and their guests during a dinner party.

After making an appointment with an illegal abortionist, in the cinema she sees a newsreel of soldiers off to the war in Indochina.