Handlung

Beth, a teenager in the midst of a painful moral education, is put in the unenviable position of holding her family together and debasing herself at the suggestion of both her scornful bedridden mother and her no-good boyfriend.

Seventeen-year-old Beth is just finishing school, and lives in Paris with her bedridden mother and younger brother. She is annoyed because her boyfriend suggested she try sleeping with other men - the uglier the better. Sugardad, a doctor who visits her mother, and supports them with occasional cheques, now has his eyes on Beth. Alphonse, an older man, intervenes when Beth's boyfriend is fighting with her on the banks of the Seine. When she visits Alphonse later, they end up discussing poetry.—Will Gilbert

At 17, Beth faces bleak prospects. Her boyfriend takes her for granted, disgusting her by suggesting she sleep with someone ugly to cement her love for him. Her mother, a penniless invalid, is willing to send Beth to the bed of mom's own sugar daddy, an aging physician, to keep the money coming. Beth picks up a geeky kid at a disco and goes to his fancy house; she leaves him quickly though, pawning one of his books for food for mom and younger brother. Then she starts a relationship with a middle-aged writer. He'd like to seduce her as well. Her only port is Chang, an artist friend her own age who can't take her in. She calls on the physician. What choices does she have?—<jhailey@hotmail.com>