[3] The film opens by showing the joyful, carefree nature of childhood as two boys (Caussat and Colin) returning to boarding school on the train enjoy playing pranks on each other and their fellow travelers.

Three of the youngest of the protagonists: Caussaut (the leader), Colin (the cook’s son), and Bruel are singled out and form a bond of friendship over their shared defiance of the school’s strict rules and absurd punishments.

They are encouraged, however by the support of a new class supervisor, Huguet, who is closer to the age and mentality of the young students and sympathizes with them, taking them out into the town for some fun.

[4] Another class supervisor, quite different from Huguet, puts an end to this chaotic fun and punishes the boys with another zero for conduct, meaning they will not be permitted to leave the school on Sundays.

Unwanted attention from the science teacher provokes Tabard, a very young protagonist with delicate and effeminate features, to talk back rudely.

In the dormitory, the boys begin their revolt by raising their skull and crossbones flag,[4] tying up the supervising teacher snoozing in his bed, instigating a pillow fight, and marching around in their nightshirts.

The four boys implement their plan to revolt, during which the celebration’s decorations and exhibitions are destroyed and the guests scattered as tin cans and other garbage is thrown down at them.

The teachers depicted in the film were based on the guards at La Petite Roquette juvenile prison where Vigo's father Miguel Almereyda had once been an inmate.

The film's soundtrack was of poor quality due to budgetary constraints but Vigo's use of poetic, rhythmic dialogue has been said to make it much easier to understand what characters are saying.

Zero for Conduct was quickly banned in France, with some believing that the French Ministry of the Interior considered it a threat capable of "creating disturbances and hindering the maintenance of order.

[6] Truffaut praised the film and said that "in one sense Zero de Conduite represents something more rare than L'Atalante because the masterpieces consecrated to childhood in literature or cinema can be counted on the fingers of one hand.