影片描写一位16岁女孩面对成长经验、家庭期许，以及突如其来的迷人爱情介入下，从女孩转变成女人的心境历程。16岁的岁的珍妮是一个聪明开朗的小姑娘，就读于英国伦敦乡下一所女子学校的预科班，她的成绩很好，是众所期待考上牛津大学的"种子选手"。某天，她遇见了成熟时髦、风趣迷人的男人大卫，并闪电般地与他陷入爱河不可自拔。大卫带她见识了大都市的灯红酒绿和浮华奢靡，这一直是她非常向往的生活。在此之前她从来未曾想过，这种生活如此轻易就能得到。很快她就沉迷其中不可自拔，备考牛津的念头也被抛诸到九霄云外。

与大卫一起的日子看起来是如此美妙，但是某一天，真相却如一记砖头重重地敲在珍妮头上。她从一个天真活泼的女学生变成了一个世故圆滑的女人，她开始反思这种生活是否真的是她想要的……

       Jenny：you are father again,are you? What were you when you encouraged me to throw my life away? Silly school girls are always getting seduced by glamorous older men. What about you two?

       Father: jenny? Jenny，I’m sorry. I know… I know I’ve made amess of everything. All my life I’ve been scared, I didn’t want you to be scared. That’s why I wanted you to be scared. That’s why I wanted you to go to Oxford. And along came David, and…he knew famous writers,…he knew how to get to classical music concerts. The other day, your mother and I were listening toa …a program on the radio about C.S.Lewis and they said…that he moved to Cambridge in 1954. I …I said, well, they’ve got that wrong, our Jenny wouldn’t have his name in her book… if he’d moved to Cambridge. There’s a cup of tea and some biscuits out there.

Jenny: If I go to university, I'm going to read what I want and to wear black..

　　珍妮：等我上了大学，我要读自己喜欢的书，还要穿黑色的衣服。

　　Jenny's father: Now that shows you are a rebel. But I want that in Oxford.

　　珍妮的爸爸：看来你还挺叛逆的，这些就等你考进牛津再说吧。

　　Jenny: No, you don't want people to even think for themselves.

　　珍妮：不，难道你不希望别人稍微为自己着想下吗？

　　Jenny's father: of course I don't.

　　珍妮的爸爸：我当然不想。

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　　Jenny: action is character. If we never did anything, we wouldn't be anybody.

　　珍妮：行动胜于一切。如果我们什么都没做，又怎么能有所成就。

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　　Miss Stubbs: Go to Oxford no matter what. 'cause if you don't, you'll break my heart.

　　斯塔布小姐：无论如何，你必须要考上牛津大学。如果你不去，我会很伤心。

　　Jenny: My choice is to do something hard and boring for the rest of my life or go to Paris and have fun.

　　珍妮：我的选择，要么一辈子做那些困难且又乏味的事，要么去巴黎享受快乐。

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　　Jenny: A Burne-Jones.

　　珍妮：伯恩·琼斯（珍妮看见相框旁边的一幅插画）

　　Miss Stubbs : Do you like him?

　　斯塔布小姐：你喜欢吗？

　　Jenny : I do. Still.

　　珍妮：喜欢。仍然。

　　Miss Stubbs :Still？ You sound very old and wise.

　　斯塔布小姐：仍然？听起来苍老而睿智。

　　Jenny: I feel old, but not very wise.

　　珍妮：老是老了，却并不怎么睿智。

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　　Jenny: I suppose you think I'm a ruined woman.

　　珍妮：也许你会认为我是一个堕落的女人。

　　Headmistress: Huh, you are not a woman.