Pierre Ruffin, manager of a municipal library, lives in a poor Montmartre pension inhabited by retired old people and some students. He is fond of a young girl for whom he was able to obtain a post as a teatcher. One evening, Pierre returns in a melancholy state and goes straight tço his room. Madeleine, worried, follows him up and finds that he has been wounded in the shoulder by a bullet. She dresses the wound and asks no questions...