Verena, a farm servant, gives birth to a little girl and for the happiness of her child, tries for nearly twenty years to bend the selfishness of the seducer who did not marry her. When she returns to the village, she has worn herself out at work, but she has the consolation of seeing her daughter's future assured.

Cyrano, poet and cadet from Gascony, is afflicted with an excessively long nose which makes the beauties smile. He is no less in love with his cousin Roxane.