A Parisian reporter tries to exonerate a fugitive neighbor of charges he murdered his wife.

Pierre Fresnay plays the title character in Le Defroque (The Defrocked One). Cast out by his church, former priest Maurice (Fresnay) delights in mocking the traditions and credos of Catholicism. Even so, young Gerard (Pierre Trabaud) becomes convinced that Maurice has never truly lost his calling. Becoming a priest himself, Gerard devotes his life to bringing Maurice back into the fold. Things don't turn out quite as Gerard hopes, however; he has not reckoned with the possibility that Maurice may have been driven into insanity by his raging self-hatred.

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.