The Paris Métro is setting for a fantasy of distanced romantic encounters. Franju, who made this film after his documentaries and prior to his narrative features, is concerned with the first experiences of love and separation. The story involves a young boy who attempts to follow an enchanting companion on the Métro, and culminates in a dream sequences of phantom Métro cars and brief encounters. The camera explores the subway with extraordinary sensitivity, creating a child's image of a machine of automatic closing doors with people riding in its maze. With a strong sense of Paris and its time, "La Première Nuit" is a parable of the unpredictability of human encounters, reflected in watching a face go by on an adjacent subway train.