Adrienne, an 18 year old provincial town girl, lives with her grouchy father and sick sister and is in love with Doctor Maurecourt. Blinded by her passion, she wrecks anything or anyone that comes her way: she throws her sister out of the house and after a fight with her father, the man falls down the stairs and gets killed.

Passing themselves off as fishermen, two fugitive female lovers find work on a trawler.