This drama about the Carmelite order of nuns is set during the French Revolution. A young woman seeks refuge with the Carmelites because she is terrified of dying during the upheaval. The longer she associates with the nuns the more she is transformed by their faith and devotion.
Martine is a young woman plagued both by poverty and by uncaring, problem parents who in no way can provide the kind of nurturing that Martine needs during her adolescent years. As a result of her family situation, Martine runs away from home and gets involved with a group of teens and young adults from the wrong side of the moral tracks.
Gervais escapes from a German concentration camp and assumes the identity of a recently deceased fellow prisoner. Knowing that the dead man has been carrying on a romance by correspondence with Hélène, whom he has never seen, Gervais makes the acquaintance of the woman and they move in, but her sister Agnès dabbles in the black arts, which should be warning enough for Gervais to make himself scarce. Yet he sticks around, intrigued that the dead man's sister, Julia, refuses to blow the whistle on him.