Demi-Tarif follows the low-key adventures of three young siblings, Romeo, Launa, and the youngest - Leo, left on their own in a rundown Paris apartment. One of them narrates, wistfully explaining how their mother abandoned them and calls them once in a while to see how they are doing or tell them she loves them. The three kids do as they please, roaming the streets, running out of restaurants without paying for food, and shoplifting from the local grocery store. They eat whatever and whenever they want, gorging themselves on sweets. They beg for change on the Metro and show up late for school in tattered, dirty clothes. All the while, they try to keep the fact that they are alone a secret from the world of adults.

In the nineteenth century, Adolphe, a young man of twenty four carefree years, plans to obtain favors Ellenore, a beautiful woman of thirty years, much more vulnerable. This yields to his advances and he disclaims all. But already, Adolphe loves less. Yet the idea of ​​the pain is unbearable.