Catherine Mautrait, a motherless child of five, is sent to her aunt’s after her grandmother dies, but she gets unfairly treated.

Three years later, her dismissive father takes her back to rear her and to live in a remote area near Bordeaux. She feels isolated with no children to play with her, until dawdling nearby a lake, she beholds three caravans and a little lad about her age comes across. He is a gypsy named Joseph, but Catherine’s father forbids her to play with him. The two children, most of the time left to their own care, shun the misery of alcoholism and the couldn’t-care-less attitude of their families.

They soon get on a very strong friendship, creating their own world, real and imaginary, as a mental relief to their ordeals. But, when time and their different education make their ways fork, they hardly handle the situation.