One of the most popular melodrama films directed by Abel Gance. A paranoide, fanatical and obsessively jealous husband obducts his own son to bully his wife.

In 19th century France, Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a relentless policeman named Javert. The pursuit consumes both men's lives, and soon Valjean finds himself in the midst of the student revolutions in France.

An honest worker is unjustly accused of murder. The culprit promises him to give his son a good education if he allows himself to be condemned.

Little Germaine Valcour, an adulterine child, is abandoned and taken in by a showman, Father Ballot. She becomes the consolation of the good man whose daughter has gone wrong. Madame Vaulcour died of grief while her lover, after many bad blows, takes justice into his own hands. The girl stays with her adoptive parents.

A young woman has three suitors on her father's logging ranch on the Quebec frontier.

A woman suffers ill repute when she deserts her husband for a fling with an adventurer and gives the lover jewelry to pay the hotel bill. Will the husband be understanding and forgive her?

Robert Bernier murdered his brother with the complicity of a worker. The only witness to the tragedy, Veronique was injured while rescuing her boss and remains blind. Later, cured by an operation, she denounces the criminal whose voice she recognized and who had taken over the factory.