Twenty-six people - including two daughters, an ex-wife, his last lover, actors, fellow directors and writers, a neighbor, and boyhood friends - talk about François Truffaut. They discuss his attitudes toward wealth, his early writings about cinema, the undercurrent of violence in his films and his personality, the way he used and altered events in his life when making films, his search for a father (both artistic and biological), his relationship with his mother, the scenes in his films that cause a squirm of embarrassment, and his ultimate mysticism. Clips from a dozen of his films are included.

Ce film inaugure un genre cinématographique : celui de l'essai sur un auteur. L'ambition est de raconter la vie et l'oeuvre de François Truffaut, cinéaste célèbre mais personnage méconnu. Le récit est celui de l'enquête : d'où les nombreux témoignages d'amis ou collaborateurs, membres de la famille du cinéaste, mais également acteurs et actrices, ou ceux d'autres cinéastes se sentant proches de lui. Le montage entrelace les différents points de vue aux extraits de films, documents d'archives et photos inédites, autorisant une certaine forme de récit où la parole des uns répond à celle des autres, soit pour contredire ou nuancer tel propos, soit pour rebondir et enrichir un point de vue.