A woman arrives in Paris with her little girl to look for work. With limited funds and no luck, they end up penniless, homeless and dependent on the rare kindness of strangers.

Georges Calin, the son of a northern industrialist, comes to Paris to work as a film director. A letter from his father recommends him to a fashionable director, Albert Fromond. The initial reception is frosty, and Georges is introduced to another director in decline. Risquard. Risquard, interested above all in his father's fortune, entrusted Georges with menial tasks. At the same time, Georges meets a young girl, Marianne, who helps him fight to succeed in the profession. Now famous, Georges forgets about the girl, who is no longer of any use to him.

Jean-Baptiste Rousse, nicknamed Noble Coeur, a journeyman carpenter in a village in Bigorre, was deported in 1942. On his return, he realizes that his compatriots have let the wood reserves on his building site be stolen. After an altercation with the mayor, he decides to take justice into his own hands and, with the help of his son Roland, cuts down the trees in the communal forest to pay him back. The mayor alerts the police. Noble Coeur takes refuge in the bell tower and, when the mayor refuses to let him bring in his wood, he demolishes it with an axe.