A gambling countess comes by a secret three card combination that wins her a fortune, but she is allowed to use it only once and not gamble again. She passes on the info twice, and the recipients both die violently. She is warned that if she passes it on again, she too will die. Many years later, a young soldier discovers that the countess has the secret, and he resolves to get it out of her.

Lamiel is a poor orphan girl who climbs to the social elite in this 19th-century costume drama. Sansfin, provincial doctor, lives vicariously through her, as he oversees the progress of his female protégé. Defiant and rebellious, Lamiel goes to Paris to escape boredom and to know love.