Poorly educated by her father, a wacky researcher, Claudine is a teenager full of life who loves her small village school run by Miss Sergeant. A new teacher, Aimée Lanthenay, arrives at the school. Seemingly awkward, she is actually an arrivist who manages to get the departure of Miss Sergeant.

In 1914, in the first months of World War I, Louise Jarraud loses her husband, killed on the front. Shortly after, she gives birth to a baby, who soon dies. Devastated by this double misfortune, Louise decides to dedicate her life to caring for the children of others. She becomes a nurse with several employers, giving her affection to little boys or girls. A widower and another man propose to her but she refuses twice determined as she is to live only for the children in her charge.