In Paris, under the Restoration, Julie de Chaverny, a young woman admired and envied by all, has been suffering for six years from an unhappy marriage to her husband, M. de Chaverny. She finally gives in to the advances of a young man she's known since childhood, deciding at last to live her own life. She wants to run away with him, but discovers it's only a passing fancy. Feeling disgraced and laughed at, she sets off for Nice to join her mother.

The impetuous Queen Marguerite of Burgundy and her two sisters, Jeanne and Blanche, indulge in sumptuous orgies at night in the chambers of the Tour de Nesle. At dawn, their partners are murdered by men. Blackmail, murder, and intrigue lend a frenetic pace to this adaptation of Alexandre Dumas's eponymous novel.