Charlotte (Gainsbourg) is being raised without a mother. She is only 13 but ready to be an adult. She meets an older boy and begins a relationship while teaching a young friend about life and learning the ropes herself.
A sentimental coming of age movie. Charlotte, an adolescent girl from a poor family, develops a crush on Clara, a super star child prodigy pianist her age, who is vacationing nearby. Miserable in her real life, she develops a casual acquaintance with the pianist, and encounters a magical world of opulence and glamor. Clara flippantly suggest that Charlotte become her manager, and Charlotte believes this and develops an entire fantasy escape scenario from her drab life with Clara. Meanwhile an older metal worker tries to seduce her (thinking she is older than 16) and ends up almost raping her, her relationship with her family and with the only friend she has, a little sick and devoted child, gets worse and worse. When the dream of escaping with Clara crashes at an afternoon concert in which Clara barely recognizes her, Charlotte finally discovers true love in her family and a in her little sick and devoted friend.
