Provence, 1938. Seventeen-year-old Yvette Barbarin lives on a small rural farm in the lavender-soaked hills behind the great port-city of Marseille with her widowed father and her five younger sisters. When she learns that her father is planning to marry her off to a local farmer, she runs away to the city where she dreams of joining a troupe of travelling players. In Marseille, Yvette is bowled over by the magic of cinema, and the thrill of make-believe. She falls in love with an actor, a rising star, but all is not as simple in real life as it is in the world of movies, and war is coming.