Simone has been brought up by her widowed father and Hermance, the old governess. She loves her father and worships her dead mother. But nobody has ever told her about the strange circumstances in which her mother lost her life. In fact, fifteen years earlier, following a hunting party, Mme de Sergeac had been found in her bedroom, killed by gunshot. Beside her, her husband, wounded and unconscious. Now Simone is fifteen. She is in love with Michel Mignier, but she still does not know the truth.