| Director | Robert Bresson |
|---|
A young man, Norbert, enters his father's study to claim his monthly allowance. His father obliges, but Norbert presses for more, citing a debt he owes a schoolmate. The father dismisses him, and an appeal to his mother fails. Norbert tries to pawn his watch to a friend, who instead gives him a forged 500-franc note.
The boys take the counterfeit to a photo shop and use it to purchase a picture frame. When the store's co-manager finds out, he scolds his partner for her gullibility. She chides him in return for having accepted two forged notes the previous week. He then decides to pass off all three forged notes at the next opportunity. He uses them to pay Yvon for delivering heating oil.
Yvon tries to pay his restaurant tab with the forged notes, but the waiter recognizes them as counterfeit. Yvon is arrested, and the photo shop people lie at his court trial. Yvon avoids jail time, but he loses his job.
One of the owners of the photo shop recognizes Norbert on the street with a group of his school friends, and she approaches the school authorities and complains to them about him. When the Chaplain quizzes some of the students about the counterfeit bills, Norbert leaves the classroom. At home, his mother advises him to deny everything, and she goes to the photo shop with a bribe for the owners to let the matter rest.
Lucien, the photo shop assistant who committed perjury for his employers at the trial by refusing to recognize Yvon, is revealed to have been marking up prices while his employers are out of the shop and pocketing the difference. His scam is discovered, and he is fired, but he keeps a copy of the shop's keys. He and two friends rob the shop's safe and begin an ATM card skimming operation.
In need of money, Yvon acts for a friend as the driver of a getaway car for bank robbers. The police foil the robbery and arrest Yvon, who is tried and sentenced to three years in prison. While there, Yvon learns of his daughter's death and his wife's decision to start a new life without him. He unsuccessfully attempts suicide.
Lucien and his accomplices are eventually arrested, and Lucien is sent to the same prison as Yvon. Lucien offers to include Yvon in a prison break attempt, but Yvon refuses. Yvon blames Lucien for his troubles and wants revenge. Lucien proceeds with his escape plan, but Yvon and his cellmate hear commotion in the hallway that indicates that Lucien has been caught. Yvon's cellmate speculates that Lucien will probably be transferred to a more severe maximum-security prison.
After being released from prison, Yvon murders and robs a pair of hotel keepers. He is taken in by a kind woman over the objection of her father. Some time passes, and one night Yvon kills them along with others in their house with an axe. He goes to a café, confesses to a police officer, and is arrested.