The life of a small group of teenagers in a small 1961 French boarding school. In French Savoie, Pierre Hautefort, a literature teacher, is head of the Beauregard school, located in the mountains.

From a distance, the campuses look just like those of the small colleges that dot the Acela corridor, the ones with the quirky mascots and the endless acapella groups. But wait for the class bell to ...