How to Be a Good Wife

Paulette Van Der Beck and her husband have been running a homemakers institute in Boersch, Alsace, for many years. Their mission is to train teenage girls to become perfect housewives at a time when women were expected to submit to their husbands. When her husband suddenly dies, Paulette takes over and discovers that the school is on the verge of bankruptcy. But while preparations are underway for the best homemaking competition sponsored by a popular TV show, she and her lively students start questioning their beliefs as the nationwide protests of May 1968 transform society around them. Reunited with her first love, Andre, and with the help of her eccentric sister-in-law Gilberte and a stern nun Marie-Therese, Paulette joins forces with her pupils to overcome their subservient status and become liberated women.