Nineteenth century : Elisa is tried for murder ; the viewer does not attend the trial but a long flashback tells the terrible destinity of the prisoner at the bar .
After losing her mother when she was still a child, she was sent to a reformatory ; when she's released ,without a penny to her name, she winds up in a house "which has been the ruin of many poor girls" .
Things look bleak for this prostitute till she meets a blind musician at a funeral ; it may be a way out of her dirty life :so she conceals her job , she finds a respectable job , but during a fair, tragedy awaits.
Based on a novel by the man who founded the Goncourt academy which awards a prize to a book every year (to the present) , it will remind you of Maupassant's "la maison Tellier" ;Reggiani is cast against type as a blind pianist and he and Dany Carrel do nicely as the doomed lovers.
