A small provincial town in the 1970s. Jean is six years old and has just started going to school. When the teacher asks each child to talk about his or her father's and mother's work, Jean, realizing that he is not like the other kids, gets worried and invents an answer: "My mom, she's a secretary." In fact, his mom is always away on trips and she sends postcards to Michèle, the little nextdoor neighbor who already knows how to read and who hence reads them to Jean, which sets him dreaming. Unless reality is something else entirely, which is what Jean slowly begins to understand in the months between September and Christmas...?