Paris, 1865. In a music-hall Manon accidentally kills her partner who was trying take sexual advantage of her. She is condemned to twenty years of hard labor first and then to be deported to marry a released convict. On the ship where she sails with her female fellow-sufferers she gets to know a young doctor and helps to suppress a revolt. Once arrived at her destination, Manon hesitates between her official fiancé and the doctor whose household she does not want to break...