A scandalised Frenchman returns from Africa where he has been involved in illegal trading of mines (resulting in the deaths of many African miners). His bourgeois family are wary of the shame that he will bring so he must try to redeem himself and his family's name.
Leaving the station after having caught the last Paris Metro, a man comes to the rescue of a woman who is being assaulted and finds himself drawn into her affairs.
“Vautrin” was adapted from Balzac in three parts: “La Pension Vauquer” partially adapted “Le Père Goriot”; “La maison du canon” and “L’adjuration de Vautrin” are taken from “Splendours and miseries of courtesans”.