The film portrays the events on the day King Henri III of France arranged for Duke Henri de Guise to be murdered.
A father has two sons, the older one serious and hard-working, the younger one spendthrift and pleasure-seeking. The latter rejects his father's authority and leaves home. It is not long before he wastes all his fortune and falls into poverty. He repents and decides to return home. Despite his older son's resentment, the father welcomes back the lost sheep.
A widow is loved by a doctor whose brother, an ecclesiastic unconsciously in love with the young woman, persuades her to enter a convent. Brought back on the straight and narrow by a missionary, the priest blesses his brother's marriage.
