In the 19th century, a drunken applejack salesman must go from zero to hero and become North America's greatest fur trapper by defeating hundreds of beavers.

2007. Fred, a 17-year-old girl who just moved from Sweden to Northeast Italy, enrolls for her high school senior year—finding herself the only female student in an all-male class. Lively and good-looking, she quickly becomes the center of attention, especially for three classmates: Antero, charming and reserved; Pasini, a cocky womanizer; Mitis, gruff and sagacious. The three have been best friends for as long as they can remember, but Fred's arrival puts their longstanding bond to the test. As each of the guys secretly desires Fred for himself, she yearns to be accepted into the group and be considered 'one of them', but is asked to sacrifice more and more in order to belong.

This simple romantic tragedy begins in 1957. Guy Foucher, a 20-year-old French auto mechanic, has fallen in love with 17-year-old Geneviève Emery, an employee in her widowed mother's chic but financially embattled umbrella shop. On the evening before Guy is to leave for a two-year tour of combat in Algeria, he and Geneviève make love. She becomes pregnant and must choose between waiting for Guy's return or accepting an offer of marriage from a wealthy diamond merchant.