The protagonist travels to visit his dying brother, a provincial notary who has married his former lover. There, the two brothers—rivals for the same woman—become embroiled in a sordid tavern brawl, after which the notary dies. That same night, his wife falls into the embrace of her former lover in a darkened room, illuminated by a shaft of candlelight from the candles burning beside the dead man's catafalque. But the adulterous woman soon meets her own fate, dying in a railway accident. There are no surviving copies of the film.