A Certain Smile, the second novel by French author Françoise Sagan, tells the story of Dominique, a bored twenty-year-old law student at the Sorbonne in mid-1950s Paris who embarks on a love affair with a middle-aged man. Frank and spontaneous, vulnerable and cruel, thoughtless and insightful, Sagan's young narrator explores such perennial themes as unrequited love and the precarious balance of irrational emotions and self-restraint.