With a stroke of charcoal

1992. Marie-Ange, Monelle, Julien, and Sami are art students who discover, along with their bodies and desires, the art of depicting the nude form. Using charcoal or red chalk, they all strive to capture the features of Joos, the model posing for the class, before the five of them meet up for a game of pinball at the café.
During a long weekend, the group of friends goes on a trip to Saint-Malo. While Monelle and Julien share their first kisses, Sami and Joos confide in Marie-Ange that they too are in love. The summer separates the quintet, and when school starts again, Marie-Ange’s friends find her transformed into “Mary,” freer and more assertive. Sami, on the other hand, is gloomy and evasive, but Mary eventually gets him to confess what is tormenting him: Joos is HIV-positive.
After another weekend of laughter and tears with Joos and Sami in Saint-Malo, Mary decides to join Act Up, an association that campaigns for the recognition of the rights of AIDS patients, even if it means incurring her father’s wrath.
Joos’s condition rapidly deteriorates and Sami, who has just celebrated his eighteenth birthday, tells Mary that he is also HIV positive. When Joos dies, Sami decides to give up his degree and accept an offer from a sailing magazine to send him around the world on assignment.
As he moves away, Mary decides to continue fighting and loving.