Antoine Doinel is a young boy growing up in Paris during the 1950s. Misunderstood by his parents for playing truant from school and stealing, and tormented in school for discipline problems by his teacher, (Antoine falsely explains his absence was due to his mother's death), Antoine frequently runs away from both places. He finally quits school after his teacher catches him plagiarizing Honoré de Balzac. He steals a typewriter from his stepfather's workplace to finance his plans to leave home, but is apprehended while trying to return it.