Betty (Beatrice Dalle) and Zorg (Jean-Hugues Anglade) have a passionate, if somewhat unconventional relationship. When she discovers his half-written novel she burns his house down and forces him to go to Paris with her in search of fame. There they team up with another couple, who run a pizza joint, before moving south, where Betty begins her tragic demise into madness and eventual death.

The directorial debut of French actor Daniel Auteuil, who also assumes one of the film's main roles, is an adaptation of a novel by Marcel Pagnol that was first adapted for cinema by Pagnol himself in 1940. At the beginning of the First World War in rural Provence, 18-year-old Patricia (Astrid Bergès-Frisbey), daughter of well-digger Pascal Amoretti (Daniel Auteuil), falls pregnant to Jacques (Nicolas Duvauchelle), the son of wealthy local businessman Mr Mazel (Jean-Pierre Darroussin). But when Jacques is called up as a fighter pilot and goes off to war not knowing that Patricia is pregnant, the well digger's daughter finds herself in a difficult predicament.