Hubert Minel, a brash 17-year-old, detests his mother. He scrutinizes her with contempt, only seeing her out-of-date sweater, her kitschy décor and the vile bread crumbs that lodge in the corners of her noisy mouth. Below the surface of these irritating traits lie the ingrained mechanisms that his mother has always cultivated so dearly - manipulation and guilt. Hubert, confused and torn by a love-hate relationship that obsesses him more and more each day, wanders in and out of an adolescence that is both marginal and typical, combining artistic discovery, openness to friendship, ostracism and sex.