Continues the saga of rascally Parisian Antoine Doinel, now in his thirties working as a proofreader at a printers. This phase of his story begins on the day of the finalization of his amicable divorce from violin teacher Christine - she to retain custody of their adolescent son Alphonse, Antoine with full visitation rights - they the first couple to do so under the new law of no fault divorce. This act follows three years since their first separation, which had been interspersed to now with getting back together, and ultimately coming to the realization that they could no longer live together despite probably still loving each other to some extent. Antoine had long moved on in dating Sabine, a record store clerk. He has not told her that their meeting was not by chance, although the specific incident of he becoming aware of her was purely by chance, he viewing that incident somewhat as providence. Their relationship, however, is having its own problems as Sabine feels he isn't as committed as she would like, he still guarding much of himself from her. In those troubles with Sabine and the divorce from Christine, Antoine can't help but reflect on the entire course of his love life, his first largely autobiographical novel, which was published, containing much of that reflection and the process which he used, somewhat unsuccessfully, as self-therapy. Regardless, he is contemplating writing about his and Sabine's relationship. His current thoughts are punctuated in he running into arguably who was his first love, Colette, a lawyer who is currently going through her own professional and personal issues, the latter with regard to her relationship with bookstore owner Xavier.
