Louis La Salle, a young poet, tired of the dissipations of Paris, resolves to quit Paris for a summer holiday and go for a walking tour in Normandy. Mr. Savard lives on his small farm with his daughter Toinette. Baptiste, a deformed farmhand, worships Toinette from a distance, but never dreams she can return his affection. Louis meets Toinette and asks where he can obtain a night's lodging. She invites him to her father's house. Toinette learns to love him, but no one sees the danger but Baptiste, who is powerless to interfere. For a while Toinette lives in a fool's paradise, then Louis is recalled to Paris and soon forgets her. She is broken-hearted and gradually fades away. On her death-bed she gives Baptiste a trinket Louis had given her, to give him if he ever returns. Two years pass, and Louis, with some friends, comes back to the village. He suddenly recalls Toinette and visits her old home to find it deserted. In the churchyard he meets Baptiste. The latter, first in a passion, seizes him by the throat, upbraiding him with his treachery to the dead. Then the memory of Toinette comes to him. He releases Louis, gives him the token and bids him go, and Louis, bowing his head in shame, leaves Baptiste alone with his dead love.
—Moving Picture World synopsis