The film consists of a series of tightly interlinked vignettes, the most sustained of which details the story of a man and a woman who are passionately in love. Their attempts to consummate their passion are constantly thwarted, by their families, by the Church and bourgeois society in general.

The life of Thérèse Martin, who entered the Carmel at the age of 15, in 1888, under the name of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, died nine years later, and canonized in 1925.

A chronicling of the life of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, a Catholic nun who died of tuberculosis at age 24.

Poor abbé Contantin, he is devastated at the news: to think that two American ladies have bought the local manor where he has always been welcome! Worse, Mrs. Scott and her cousin Bettina are protestant. But the good priest soon realizes there is no cause for alarm. The two ladies are charming and open-minded. They insist on Constantin sticking to his old habits and he gladly resumes his visits to the manor. Paul,his nephew, will even fall in love with Bettina and the priest will unite the two young people in the village of mirth.

A former professor and devout Catholic living in Jerusalem is unaware that his son supposedly studying in Paris has actually become the leader of an anarchist network under the codename Sirias.

A French washerwoman becomes a duchess and a friend of Napoleon.