An English governor in India, deceived by his wife, proposes to him either to accuse the lover of embezzlement, or to condemn her to end her days as a prostitute in the rue des Bouches Peintes. She chooses the second solution...

Mr. Durand is bored in his relationship. He takes a mistress but does not take long to return to his wife, a little because he is sad, a little also because he has affection for her, but above all out of selfish habit.

Marie Leroux, who is married to Charles, an honest, understanding country doctor, lives an uneventful, rather monotonous life.Her husband is a kind man but he does not give her any thrill or excitement. One day, Marie meets Olivier Dumas-Beaulieu, a handsome industrialist, who is in the process of leaving his fiancée Corinne, despite her being pregnant by him. It is easy for the confirmed womanizer he is, to seduce Marie, who very foolishly thinks she has found true love. Shortly afterward Charles is shot dead by Olivier while the two men were having a quarrel about Marie. The latter, who finds the corpse, believes her husband has committed suicide. Which is not the police's opinion and Marie is arrested and condemned to ten years in prison. Annihilated by such unfair treatment and, worse, by the separation from her beloved eight-year-old daughter, she still manages to survive and to serve her sentence.

The suffering and rebellion of 12-year-old François Lepic, nicknamed "Carrot Top" by his mother, who hates him. Occupied with the council elections, his father appears unaware that the young boy is increasingly tempted by suicide.

The film is based on the theatrical work of Alfred de Musset of the same name. In this version, Lysiane Bernhardt (daughter of Sarah Bernhardt) plays the role of Camille.

The film tells the story of Frau Concha a femme fatale or as the story points out, a "fille perdue", a lost girl who has no feelings or scruples, toying with men as she pleases. These are the kind of wicked girls that usually are invited to enjoy the soirées at the Schloss. She is without mercy, respect or loyalty and Suzanne Talba is just great in the role and performs it in a unique way.

The tribulations of a banknote, from its exit from a counter to its destruction, passing through dozens of hands.