A provincial, Julie Moret, is hired as a servant in a Parisian bourgeois residence. She is courted by one of the Bouquinquant brothers, Léon, who does not take long to ask her to marry him. Alas, Léon turns out to be violent, alcoholic and lazy. Faced with her misfortune, Julie gets closer to her brother-in-law Pierre, the opposite of Léon, serious and hardworking, and they become lovers. The drama will rush when Julie becomes pregnant with Pierre.
Mado loves Henry but is coveted by Bob Torquella, a dangerous gangster. The latter, mad with jealousy, is prepared to do everything to get rid of Henri. He and his accomplice involve him in a dangerous robbery. Henri is hurt and arrested by the police. But the young man, a weak character, denounces his accomplices. Two years later, the two gangsters run away from prison. Bob finds that Henri and Mado are husband and wife and have a daughter. In a panic, Henri runs for cover.
Jeannot, a young boy living in the countryside with his mother and grandfather, ventures into the forest at night to pick a fern flower before the cock crows.
