Valentin D is a hot designer architect who claims to be an orphan because he is too ashamed to admit he is the son of working-class scrap metal merchants from the north of France.
Lucien de Rubempré, a young, lower-class poet, leaves his family's printing house for Paris. Soon, he learns the dark side of the arts business as he tries to stay true to his dreams.
Anna, stuck in a relationship with an authoritarian and violent man, falls in love with Claude who is planning a robbery. The robbery goes wrong and Claude ends up in prison.
