 Claude Barsac, a penniless attorney, has stolen one million francs from his friend Jacques de Mirande before murdering his wife who was on the verge of reporting him to the police. It is Jacques who is accused of the murder but Barsac defends his friend brilliantly at the trial and he is cleared. Later, Barsac works his way up in politics and becomes a member of parliament. He will wind up being arrested thanks to the perspicacity of an examining magistrate on the one hand and to the stubbornness of Jacques, determined to be revenged, on the other.