At a maternity clinic, young single mothers are supported through their pregnancy by social worker Hélène Lambert. As the latter helps them to come to terms with their new responsibilities as a parent, Dr Baurain takes charge of their moral education. The women that Lambert and Baurain have to deal with are often in a state of distress and confusion. There is, for example, the inadequate young mother who wants to give her baby up for adoption, another who is expecting a second child after the first died in dramatic circumstances. Such was the fate of many women before the contraceptive pill became widely available.