Athanase Pernath is a gem cutter in the Prague ghetto. In spite of himself, he becomes embroiled in the lives of his neighbors. Family feuds, swindles, jealousies and revenge lead Pernath to prison, while the threat of the Golem, a monster created by a rabbi and awakening every thirty-three years, hangs over the city.

Martine Bressac is released from a psychiatric clinic after a year's treatment and is driven home by her chauffeur, Mathias. She is welcomed by the demented hunchbacked gardener Malou and the mute servant girl Adèle, and impatiently demands the key to her mysterious private chamber. There, set out like exhibits in a waxwork, are the bodies of beautiful girls frozen in postures of terror on the point of death. With Mathias' help, Martine has just added another girl, a prostitute, to her collection when her husband and accomplice, Charles, arrives home with slides of a further prospective victim: Cécile the virginal daughter of a diplomat...