A hymn to total freedom in love and a lament for the impossibility of achieving it, Jules and Jim marks the beginning of Truffaut's mature work. A tale of two men and a woman sharing life and love over a period of 20 years, the overriding theme in the film is the characters' awareness of the fragility of their happiness. In belle époque Paris, best friends Jules (Oskar Werner) and Jim (Henri Serre) meet Catherine (Jeanne Moreau), a woman who enchants both men. Marriage, childbirth, the Great War, infidelity and suicide affect the three characters over two decades as the audience regards the wildly uninhibited Catherine through the eyes of her male admirers.