Trouble begins when Ludovic befriends Jérôme, the son of her father's boss (whose family lives across from the Fabres), and expresses a desire to marry him. When visiting Jérôme's house, Ludovic enters her sister's room and puts on one of her dresses, not realizing that the sister is deceased and the room was merely kept in memory of her. Jérôme's mother sees this and she and the rest of the neighbors are horrified. The community turns against Ludovic and, by extension, the rest of the Fabre family. After Ludovic stands in as Snow White in a school play, the parents of the other students send in a petition to have her expelled. Ludovic's father, under strain as an employee of Jérôme's father, is unable to cope and causes conflict within the family. After a particularly bad argument, Ludovic attempts to mend the situation by hiding in a freezer to commit suicide. She is found in time and allowed to wear a skirt to a neighborhood party. While the other neighbors greet her warmly, Ludo's father gets fired the next day and finds his house spray-painted with graffiti. Ludo runs out of the house, distraught. Hanna, Ludovic's mother, blames Ludovic for everything that has gone wrong. She wants to set Ludo straight, so she cuts her hair to make her look like her brother's. Ludo resents her mother for doing this, ultimately deciding that she wants to live with her grandmother.